Abstract

From a standard point of view Modulational Instability (MI) process leads to the formation of two symmetric spectral side lobes [1]. In optical fibers, it has been shown that working in low anomalous dispersion regions, the slope of the dispersion leads to a symmetry breaking of the spectrum and to the generation of dispersive waves (DW) [2]. In this work, we demonstrate both numerically and experimentally an a priori unexpected dynamics of this symmetry-breaking process that occurs in low dispersion optical fibers. We show in particular that the induced spectral asymmetry does not decrease monotonically with the dispersion value but exhibits extrema and a reversal of the asymmetry due to coherent interactions between DWs and MI side lobes.

© 2011 IEEE