LONGITUDINAL STRUCTURE FORMATION IN A NONLINEAR RESONATOR

A fiber ring resonator, synchronously driven by picosecond pulses, exh ibits a spatiotemporal instability. A rapid modulation in the pulse en velope is spontaneously formed and evolves dynamically. This structure may be called one-dimensional optical turbulence. Single-shot detecti on of these structures is not viable. We report how to obtain experime ntal information which, when combined with numerical simulation, provi des an adequate picture of the processes at work. Intrapulse correlati ons are studied; they reveal clear differences between dispersion of e ither sign. Also, they reveal the formation of soliton-like structures in the turbulent regime. A criterion is given that allows the predict ion of the degree of complexity.