Instabilities and Rogue Waves in Non-Linear Fiber Optics

Recent work in nonlinear fiber optics([1,2]) has demonstrated qualitative and quantitative links between instabilities in optical propagation and the giant destructive rogue or freak waves on the surface of the ocean. The analogy between the appearance of instabilities in optics and the rogue waves on the ocean's surface is both intriguing and attractive, as it opens up possibilities to explore the extreme value dynamics in a convenient bench-top optical environment. The purpose of this talk will be to discuss the results that have been obtained in optics, and to consider both the similarities and the differences with oceanic rogue wave counterparts. The talk will review experimental work in this field and will cover rogue waves in supercontinuum generation and the formation of localized new classes of soliton on finite background([3]). In particular, some conditions leading to the appearance of Peregrine solitons in the early stages of supercontinuum generation will be studied([4]). New experimental techniques to directly reveal real-time noise and rogue wave signatures across the full bandwidth of an optical supercontinuum will also be described([5]).