Synchronization of vectorial noise-sustained structures.

The synchronization of vectorial, noise-sustained structures in nonlinear optical systems is discussed. In particular, the analysis is made for nondegenerate optical parametric oscillators with walk off. The interplay between walk off and noise fluctuations leads to the formation of noise-sustained transverse patterns in both the signal and idler fields. Despite the fact that both patterns are stochastic macroscopic structures driven by independent sources of noise, their correlation grows with time, finally leading to a spatially distributed time synchronization of noise-sustained structures. A physical explanation of this phenomenon is found by analyzing the linear instability process and the existence of exact nonlinear solutions that show the same correlation.