Spatial extreme events in a photorefractive single-feedback system
Abstract
We analyze pattern formation in an optical system composed of a bulk photorefractive crystal subjected to a single optical feedback. Far above the modulational instability threshold, in a highly nonlinear regime we report on a turbulent spatio-temporal dynamics that leads to rare and intense localized optical peaks. We demonstrate that the statistics and features of those peaks correspond to two dimensional rogue events. These optical rogue waves arise erratically in space and time and live for a typical time of the same order of the response time of the photorefractive material.