Modulation instability in higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equations

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of modulation instability (MI) and the corresponding breather solutions to the extended nonlinear Schrödinger equation that describes the full scale growth-decay cycle of MI. As an example, we study modulation instability in connection with the fourth-order equation in detail. The higher-order equations have free parameters that can be used to control the growth-decay cycle of the MI; that is, the growth rate curves, the time of evolution, the maximal amplitude, and the spectral content of the Akhmediev Breather strongly depend on these coefficients.