Modulation instability in nonlinear metamaterials induced by cubic-quintic nonlinearities and higher order dispersive effects

We have investigated modulation instability (MI) in metamaterials (MM) with both cubic and quintic nonlinearities, based on a model appropriate for pulse propagation in MM with cubic-quintic nonlinearities and higher order dispersive effects. We have included loss into account in our analysis and found that loss distorts the sidebands of the MI gain spectrum. We found that the combined effect of cubic-quintic nonlinearity increases the MI gain. The role of higher order nonlinear dispersive effects on MI has also been discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.