Incoherent white-light solitons in nonlinear periodic lattices

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2006 May;73(5 Pt 2):056608. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.73.056608. Epub 2006 May 18.

Abstract

We predict the existence of lattice solitons made of incoherent white light: lattice solitons made of light originating from an ordinary incandescent light bulb. We find that the intensity structure and spatial power spectra associated with different temporal frequency constituents of incoherent white-light lattice solitons (IWLLSs) arrange themselves in a characteristic fashion, with the intensity structure more localized at higher frequencies, and the spatial power spectrum more localized at lower frequencies; the spatial correlation distance is larger at lower frequency constituents of IWLLSs. This characteristic shape of incoherent white-light lattice solitons reflects the fact that diffraction is stronger for lower temporal frequency constituents, while higher frequencies experience stronger effective nonlinearity and deeper lattice structure.