Filamentation processes and dynamical excitation of light condensates in optical media with competing nonlinearities

Abstract

We analyze both theoretically and by means of numerical simulations the phenomena of filamentation and dynamical formation of self-guided nonlinear waves in media featuring competing cubic and quintic nonlinearities. We provide a theoretical description of recent experiments in terms of a linear stability analysis supported with simulations, showing the possibility of the observation of modulational instability suppression of intense light pulses traveling across such nonlinear media. We also show a mechanism of indirect excitation of light condensates by means of coalescence processes of nonlinear coherent structures produced by managed filamentation of high-power laser beams.