Spatial Akhmediev Breathers in Slab Waveguides

Summary form only given. The analytical breather-solutions of the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (NLS) [1] have been intensively studied and verified experimentally in the time-space system of optical pulse propagation in fibers [2]. In space-space systems, i.e. in optical beam propagation breathers in ultra-fast nonlinear media have not been observed due to the breather's infinite background and a resulting extremely large power. In a lithium niobate slab waveguide with two second-harmonic (SH) resonances the resulting quasi-cubic cascaded quadratic nonlinearity provided together with the intrinsic cubic susceptibility enough nonlinearity for breather excitation at experimentally reachable powers. We could characterize the fi rst ultra -fast spatial -spatial optical breathers in a 5 -cm -long titanium indiffused lithium niobate slab waveguide at power levels down to tens of kW. The guided fundamental wave (FW) TM° fi lm mode at A = 1.32μm is phase -matched for type -I SH generation to TE 0 and TEi SH modes at temperatures near 295 and 344C. With temperature tuning the phase -mismatch and the two effective cascaded nonlinearities were adjusted. For breather observation, we aimed for a large phase -mismatch with low SH levels such that the cascaded nonlinearity is quasi -cubic and the propagation is well approximated by the NLS and its breather solutions. A frequency -doubled Nd:YAG-pumped OPA with CW-seeding delivered 5-ps long pulses with up to 200kW peak power in the waveguide. With a cylindrical telescope the beam was transformed into a very wide elliptical beam to approximate the breather background. The beam was end -fire coupled into the FW TM () mode. A variable few % of the beam were separated and coupled with a tilt and good overlap to the main beam into the waveguide to produce a spatial modulation of the input with adjustable period and modulation depth. A beam width of 1.5mm was large enough in the compromise between available beam power and infinite beam width. A beam with a transverse modulation with periods between 130 to 300μm approximates a constant background with modulation well enough to trigger modulation instability that develops eventually into the breather.