Wave modulation in a nonlinear dispersive medium

A model describing the simultaneous amplitude and phase modulation of a carrier wave propagating in a nonlinear dispersive medium is developed in terms of nonlinear wave‐wave interactions between the sidebands and a low frequency wave. It is also shown that the asymmetric distribution of sidebands is determined by the wavenumber dependence of the coupling coefficient. Digital complex demodulation techniques are used to study modulated waves in a weakly ionized plasma and the experimental results support the analytical model.