Nonlinearity and disorder in fiber arrays

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Jul 30;93(5):053901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.053901. Epub 2004 Jul 27.

Abstract

We experimentally investigate light propagation in a disordered two-dimensional array of mutually coupled optical fibers. In the linear case light either spreads in a diffusive manner or localizes at a few sites. For high excitation power diffusive spreading is arrested by the focusing nonlinearity, i.e., forming a discrete soliton. By contrast, fields, which are localized in the linear regime, can experience both spreading and contraction caused by the nonlinearity.