Counterpropagating pattern dynamics: From narrow to broad beams

The development of patterns in counterpropagating (CP) beams in saturable Kerr-like media is investigated in a numerical study, by varying the width of beams. A model of interacting mutually incoherent beams is adopted, with slow local changes in the index of refraction, and a numerical simulation of propagating beams is performed for different values of the driving parameters. Linear stability analysis (LSA) of CP beams is carried out, and a modulational instability threshold for the appearance of side beams is determined. The results of LSA, concerning the instability of plane waves, are compared with the numerical results concerning broad hyper-Gaussian beams whose width is varied. Qualitative agreement is found, due to the similarity between plane waves and flat-top hyper-Gaussian beam profiles. Owing to very slow quasi-steady-state changes in the system during time evolution, the transverse characteristics of beam distributions, determined by LSA, are found to persist for long in the transient evolution of CP beams. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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