Experimental observation of polarization instability in a birefringent optical fiber

We present the first experimental demonstration of spatial instability in the nonlinear evolution of the state of polarization of an intense light beam in a birefringent Kerr‐like medium. As the peak power crosses the threshold for the instability, we observed strong intensity‐dependent power transfer between the two counter‐rotating circularly polarized waves propagating along a birefringent optical fiber. The experimental results agree well with the theory.

[1]  Irene A. Stegun,et al.  Handbook of Mathematical Functions. , 1966 .

[2]  S Wabnitz,et al.  New all-optical devices based on third-order nonlinearity of birefringent fibers. , 1986, Optics letters.

[3]  Bruno Crosignani,et al.  Intensity-induced rotation of the polarization ellipse in low-birefringence, single-mode optical fibres , 1985 .

[4]  H. Winful,et al.  Polarization instabilities in birefringent nonlinear media: application to fiber-optic devices. , 1986, Optics letters.

[5]  Adelbert Owyoung,et al.  Intensity-Induced Changes in Optical Polarizations in Glasses , 1972 .

[6]  K. Sala.  Nonlinear refractive-index phenomena in isotropic media subjected to a dc electric field: Exact solutions , 1984 .

[7]  Gregori,et al.  New exact solutions and bifurcations in the spatial distribution of polarization in third-order nonlinear optical interactions. , 1986, Physical review letters.

[8]  Herbert G. Winful,et al.  Self‐induced polarization changes in birefringent optical fibers , 1985 .

[9]  R. Stolen,et al.  Raman gain in glass optical waveguides , 1973 .

[10]  R. W. Terhune,et al.  Intensity-Dependent Changes in the Refractive Index of Liquids , 1964 .

[11]  R. Stolen,et al.  Intensity discrimination of optical pulses with birefringent fibers. , 1982, Optics letters.

[12]  Chinlon Lin,et al.  Self-phase modulation in silica optical fibers (A) , 1978 .

[13]  S. Wabnitz,et al.  Nonlinear polarization evolution and instability in a twisted birefringent fiber. , 1986, Optics letters.

[14]  S. Wabnitz,et al.  Stability analysis of nonlinear coherent coupling , 1985 .

[15]  Nasser N Peyghambarian,et al.  Optical Bistability III , 1986 .