Nonlinear Wave Propagation in a Disordered Medium (original) (raw)

Localization decay induced by strong nonlinearity in disordered systems

1990

The scattering of a nonlinear wave packet as an envelope soliton by a one-dimensional disordered system is studied. It is well known that in the linear limit the transmission coeScient decays exponentially with a characteristic localization length. We predict, using a simple independent scattering approach and soliton perturbation theory in the framework of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation, that strong nonlinearity above a certain threshold allows undistorted propagation of wave packets.

On the stability of time-harmonic localized states in a disordered nonlinear medium

J Statist Phys, 1996

We study the problem of localization in a disordered one-dimensional nonlinear medium modeled by the nonlinear Schr6dinger equation. Devillard and SouiUard have shown that almost every time-harmonic solution of this random PDE exhibits localization. We consider the temporal stability of such timeharmonic solutions and derive bounds on the location of any unstable eigenvalues. By direct numerical determination of the eigenvalues we show that these time-harmonic solutions are typically unstable, and find the distribution of eigenvalues in the complex plane. The distributions are distinctly different for focusing and defocusing nonlinearities. We argue further that these instabilities are connected with resonances in a Schr6dinger problem, and interpret the earlier numerical simulations of Caputo, Newell, and Shelley, and of Shelley in terms of these instabilities. Finally, in the defocusing case we are able to construct a family of asymptotic solutions which includes the stable limiting time-harmonic state observed in the simulations of Shelley.

Localization and delocalization for strong disorder in one-dimensional continuous potentials

In one-dimension and for discrete uncorrelated random potentials, such as tight binding models, all states are localized for any disorder strength. This is in contrast to continuous random potentials, where we show here that regardless of the strength of the random potential, we have delocalization in the limit where the roughness length goes to zero. This result was obtained by deriving an expression for the localization length valid for all disorder strengths.Wesolved a nonlinear wave equation, whose average over disorder yields the localization properties of the desired linear wave equation. Our results, not only explain the origin of the difficulty to observe localization in certain physical systems, but also show that maximum localization occurs when the roughness length is comparable to the wavelength, which is relevant to many experiments in a random medium.

Propagation of nonlinear waves in disordered media

Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2004

We study the propagation of stationary waves in disordered non-linear media described by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation and show that for given boundary conditions and a given coherent wave incident on the sample, the number of solutions of the equation increases exponentially with sample size.

Dynamics of wave packets for the nonlinear Schr�dinger equation with a random potential

Phys Rev E, 2009

The dynamics of an initially localized Anderson mode is studied in the framework of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation in the presence of disorder. It is shown that the dynamics can be described in the framework of the Liouville operator. An analytical expression for a wave function of the initial time dynamics is found by a perturbation approach. As follows from a perturbative solution the initially localized wave function remains localized. At asymptotically large times the dynamics can be described qualitatively in the framework of a phenomenological probabilistic approach by means of a probability distribution function. It is shown that the probability distribution function may be governed by the fractional Fokker-Planck equation and corresponds to subdiffusion.

Localization-delocalization transition on a separatrix system of nonlinear Schrödinger equation with disorder

EPL (Europhysics Letters), 2012

Localization-delocalization transition in a discrete Anderson nonlinear Schrödinger equation with disorder is shown to be a critical phenomenon -similar to a percolation transition on a disordered lattice, with the nonlinearity parameter thought as the control parameter. In vicinity of the critical point the spreading of the wave field is subdiffusive in the limit t → +∞. The second moment grows with time as a power law ∝ t α , with α exactly 1/3. This critical spreading finds its significance in association with the general problem of transport along separatrices of dynamical systems with many degrees of freedom and is mathematically related with a description in terms fractional derivative equations. Above the delocalization point, with the criticality effects stepping aside, we find that the transport is subdiffusive with α = 2/5 consistently with the results from previous investigations. A threshold for unlimited spreading is calculated exactly by mapping the transport problem on a Cayley tree.

Localization length of stationary states in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Physical Review E, 2007

For the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE), in presence of disorder, exponentially localized stationary states are found. In the present work it is demonstrated analytically that the localization length is typically independent of the strength of the nonlinearity and is identical to the one found for the corresponding linear equation. The analysis makes use of the correspondence between the stationary NLSE and the Langevin equation as well as of the resulting Fokker-Planck equation.