Modulation Instability and Pattern Formation in Spatially Incoherent Light Beams

Modulation instability and pattern formation in spatially incoherent light beams.

We report on the experimental observation of modulation instability of partially spatially incoherent light beams in noninstantaneous nonlinear media and show that in such systems patterns can form spontaneously from noise. Incoherent modulation instability occurs above a specific threshold that depends on the coherence properties (correlation distance) of the wave packet and leads to a periodi...

Modulation Instability of Spatially-Incoherent Light Beams and Pattern Formation in Incoherent Wave Systems

(1¿1)-Dimensional modulation instability of spatially incoherent light

We present a comprehensive study of the one-dimensional modulation instability of partially spatially incoherent light in noninstantaneous self-focusing media. For this instability to occur, the nonlinearity has to exceed a specific threshold that depends on the coherence properties of the beam. Above this threshold a uniform-intensity partially spatially coherent wave front becomes unstable an...

Coherent addition of spatially incoherent light beams.

We report on efficient coherent addition of spatially incoherent multimode laser beam distributions. Such addition is demonstrated within a multi-channel laser resonator configuration, obtaining more than 90% combining efficiency while preserving the good beam quality. We explain the rather surprising physical phenomenon of coherently adding spatially incoherent light by self-phase-locking of e...

Modulation instability of incoherent beams in noninstantaneous nonlinear media

We show that modulation instability can exist with partially spatially incoherent light beams in a noninstantaneous nonlinear environment. For such incoherent modulation instability to occur, the value of the nonlinearity has to exceed a threshold imposed by the degree of spatial coherence.