Probing optically silent superfluid stripes in cuprates.

Unconventional superconductivity in the cuprates coexists with other types of electronic order. However, some of these orders are invisible to most experimental probes because of their symmetry. For example, the possible existence of superfluid stripes is not easily validated with linear optics, because the stripe alignment causes interlayer superconducting tunneling to vanish on average.

Multimode semiconductor laser with selective optical feedback.

We study a multimode semiconductor laser subject to moderate selective optical feedback. The steady state of the laser is destabilized by a Hopf bifurcation and exhibits a period-doubling route to chaos. We also show the existence of a heteroclinic connection between a saddle node and an unstable focus that can be associated with experimentally observed multimode low-frequency fluctuations.

Control of giant pulse duration in neodymium minilasers with controllable cavity length and pulsed pumping.

In a solid-state laser incident on a LiNdP4O12 crystal, pumped by a short light pulse, giant pulse oscillation without the use of resonator Q switching is realized. Tuning of the oscillation pulse duration from 2 up to 20 ns is achieved by changing the cavity length from 24 to 3 mm, respectively. Our analysis of this mode of laser radiation is made on the basis of the rate equations.

Curvilinear motion of multivortex laser-soliton complexes with strong and weak coupling.

We reveal the existence of stable dissipative soliton complexes with curvilinear motion of their center of mass. This type of motion results from the field distribution asymmetry and is well pronounced for asymmetric complexes of laser solitons with strong coupling. We present results of numerical simulations of such complexes in a model of wide-aperture lasers or laser amplifiers with saturable gain and absorption.

Damping of persistent oscillations of quadratic optical solitons.

We investigate the dynamics of optical soliton formation in media with quadratic nonlinearity under conditions of long-living oscillations produced by the soliton's internal modes. We compare the predictions of the second-order perturbation approach, combining it with the energy conservation law, with the direct numerical simulations using the transparent boundary conditions. We demonstrate that these two approaches correlate well and describe the nonlinear radiation damping of the internal modes.

Scattered light diagnostics of overdense plasma cavity in solid targets irradiated by an ultraintense laser pulse.

The light scattered backward from a target illuminated by ultraintense laser pulses carries important information about the nonlinear laser-plasma interaction. We analyze the usefulness of this information by plasma corona analysis with the help of an analytical model we developed, and particle-in-cell simulation. The spectrum of scattered light is shown to be shifted, to be broadened, and to be modulated, in comparison with the initial laser spectrum, and the spectral shift is an indicator of laser pulse contrast ratio.

Application of the photon average trajectories method to real-time reconstruction of tissue inhomogeneities in diffuse optical tomography of strongly scattering media.

The possibility of application of the photon average trajectories (PAT) method to real-time reconstruction of tissue inhomogeneities in diffuse optical tomography of strongly scattering media has been substantiated. By this method, the inverse problem is reduced to solution of the integral equation with integration along a conditional PAT. Such an approach allows the standard fast algebraic algorithms commonly used in projection computed tomography to be applied to diffuse optical image reconstruction.

Enhancement of x-ray line emission from plasmas produced by short high-intensity laser double pulses.

Femtosecond laser-produced plasmas are bright ultrafast line x-ray sources potentially suitable for different applications including material science and biology. The conversion efficiency of the laser energy incident onto a solid target into the x-ray emission is significantly enhanced when a laser prepulse precedes the main pulse. The details of x-ray line emission from solid targets irradiated by a pair of ultrashort laser pulses are investigated both theoretically and experimentally.

Effects of spatial inhomogeneities on the dynamics of cavity solitons in quadratically nonlinear media.

We study the dynamics of cavity solitons under the influence of spatial inhomogeneities and derive generalized equations of motions. For perturbations large compared to the soliton size we find the modulus of the soliton velocity to be proportional to the gradient of the respective perturbation and that the proportionality coefficient changes sign when the soliton peak power drives the cavity beyond the resonance. For short scale perturbations solitons may be trapped at the extrema of the inhomogeneities.

Polarization state of quadratic spatial optical solitons.

We derive governing equations that determine a full polarization state of transversely two-dimensional spatial solitons in a bulk anisotropic medium with the second-order nonlinearity. Based on nonlinear vectorial Maxwell's equations and approximation of slowly varying envelopes, our approach describes also lowest-order nonparaxial effects, however the most important factor governing radiation polarization is the medium anisotropy. This factor results in mixing of orthogonal components of electric field of quadratic soliton that consists of coupled beams at the fundamental frequency and its second harmonics.

Symmetry breaking and dynamical independence in a multimode laser.

Multimode lasers display various behaviors caused by the asymmetry between the modes belonging to orthogonal polarizations. We discuss dynamical independence, clustering, and grouping in a solid state laser with intracavity second harmonic generation, and show that these effects result from unstable cycles lying within their invariant planes. These invariant planes are dynamically independent.

Effect of frequency detunings and finite relaxation rates on laser localized structures.

We study, analytically and numerically, the effect of frequency detunings and relaxation processes in laser media on stability and bifurcations of dissipative optical localized structures (DOLS's) in a transversely one-dimensional laser with a saturable absorber. The approximate envelope equation, with an intensity dependent effective coefficient of the diffusion, is derived. Andronov-Hopf bifurcations resulting from frequency detuning and leading to oscillatory DOLS's are analyzed numerically.

Low frequency fluctuations in a multimode semiconductor laser with optical feedback.

We study a multimode semiconductor laser subject to a moderate optical feedback. The steady state is destabilized by either a simple Hopf bifurcation leading to in phase dynamics or by a degenerate Hopf bifurcation leading to antiphase dynamics. The degenerate bifurcation is also a source of multiple coexisting attractors.