Title: Rogue waves in optics: Facts and fictions

Biography:

Milivoj R. Belic has finished the School of Mathematics in Belgrade in 1970, completed BS degree in physics at the University of Belgrade in 1974, and obtained PhD in physics at the City College of New York in 1980 (advisers Joel Gersten and Mel Lax).  Since 1982 he is affiliated with the Institute of Physics Belgrade. Starting from 2004 he is the professor in physics at the Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha. His research areas include nonlinear optics and nonlinear dynamics. He is the author of 6 books and more than 500 papers. The recipient of numerous research awards, He received the Galileo Galilei Medal for 2004, from the International Commission for Optics. His research team was awarded twice as the best Research Team by the Qatar National Research Fund. Dr. Belić is a Senior Member of OSA.

Abstract

Rogue waves are giant nonlinear waves that suddenly appear and disappear in oceans and optics. We discuss the facts and fictions related to their strange nature, dynamic generation, ingrained instability, and potential applications. We propose the method of mode pruning for suppressing the modulation instability of rogue waves. We demonstrate how to produce Talbot carpets – ordered recurrent images of light and plasma waves – by rogue waves, for possible use in nanolithography.

Figure 1: Unstable and stabilized Talbot carpets, made from second-order rogue waves produced in the nonlinear Schrődinger equation.