Narrowband and ultra-wideband modulation instability in nonlinear metamaterial waveguides

Abstract

Waveguides based on metamaterials may exhibit strongly frequency-dependent nonlinearities. In this work, we focus on the phenomenon of modulation instability in this type of waveguide, departing from a new modeling equation that ensures strict conservation of both the energy and photon number of the parametric process. In particular, we analyse the case of a waveguide with a linearly frequency-dependent nonlinear coefficient, revealing unique features such as narrowband and ultra-wideband gain spectra and the suppression of the power cutoff giving rise to an ever-growing MI gain. These markedly distinct regimes are enabled by self-steepening (SS) and manifest themselves depending upon the magnitude and sign of the SS parameter.We believe these findings to be most relevant in the context of mid-IR supercontinuum sources.