Phase-sensitive seeded modulation instability in passive fiber resonators.

Modulation instability is one of the most ubiquitous phenomena in physics. Here we investigate the phase-sensitive properties of modulation instability with harmonic seeding in passive fiber resonators. Theoretical investigations based on the Lugiato−Lefever equation with time dependent pump and a three-wave truncation show that the dynamics of the system is sensitive to the relative phase between input signal, idler, and pump waves. The modulation instability gain can even vanish for a peculiar value of the initial relative phase. An advanced multi-heterodyne measurement technique had been developed to record the real time evolution, round-trip to round-trip, of the power and phase of the output cavity field to confirm these theoretical predictions. Modulation instability refers to the sensitivity of dispersive, weakly nonlinear systems to small perturbations and may be used as a source of optical gain. Here, the phase-sensitive properties of modulation instability with harmonic seeding in passive fiber resonators are investigated in theory and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]