Modulational instability in optical fibers with randomly kicked normal dispersion

We study modulational instability (MI) in optical fibers with random group-velocity dispersion (GVD) generated by sharply localized perturbations of a normal GVD fiber that are either randomly or periodically placed along the fiber and that have random strength. This perturbation leads to the appearance of low-frequency MI side lobes that grow with the strength of the perturbations, whereas they are faded by randomness in their position. If the random perturbations exhibit a finite average value, they can be compared with periodically perturbed fibers, where parametric resonance tongues (also called Arnold tongues) appear. In that case, increased randomness in the strengths of the variations tends to affect the Arnold tongues less than increased randomness in their positions.

Automated summary

This study investigates the modulational instability in optical fibers with random group-velocity dispersion generated by sharply localized perturbations, either randomly or periodically placed along the fiber. The results show that low-frequency MI side lobes may appear and grow with the strength of the perturbations, but they are affected by the randomness in their position. Comparisons between randomly perturbed fibers and periodically perturbed fibers with finite average value perturbations reveal how randomness in strength of the variations and randomness in position can influence the Arnold tongues differently.