Observation of random-phase lattice solitons

    Authors

    O. Cohen; G. Bartal; H. Buljan; T. Carmon; J. W. Fleischer; M. Segev;D. N. Christodoulides

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Nature

    Keywords

    OPTICAL BLOCH OSCILLATIONS; WAVE-GUIDE ARRAYS; DISCRETE SOLITONS; MODES; LIGHT; Multidisciplinary Sciences

    Abstract

    The coherence of waves in periodic systems ( lattices) is crucial to their dynamics, as interference effects, such as Bragg reflections, largely determine their propagation. Whereas linear systems allow superposition, nonlinearity introduces a non-trivial interplay between localization effects, coupling between lattice sites, and incoherence. Until recently, all research on solitary waves (solitons) in nonlinear lattices has involved only coherent waves. In such cases, linear dispersion or diffraction of wave packets can be balanced by nonlinear effects, resulting in coherent lattice ( or 'discrete') solitons(1,2); these have been studied in many branches of science(3-11). However, in most natural systems, waves with only partial coherence are more common, because fluctuations ( thermal, quantum or some other) can reduce the correlation length to a distance comparable to the lattice spacing. Such systems should support random-phase lattice solitons displaying distinct features(12). Here we report the experimental observation of randomphase lattice solitons, demonstrating their self-trapping and local periodicity in real space, in addition to their multi-peaked power spectrum in momentum space. We discuss the relevance of such solitons to other nonlinear periodic systems in which fluctuating waves propagate, such as atomic systems, plasmas and molecular chains.

    Journal Title

    Nature

    Volume

    433

    Issue/Number

    7025

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    500

    Last Page

    503

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000226727200042

    ISSN

    0028-0836

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