Pattern-dislocation-type dynamical instability in 1D optical feedback Kerr media with Gaussian transverse pumping.

ABSTRACT

We study experimentally and numerically the secondary instability corresponding to the destabilization of stationary transverse roll patterns appearing in a 1D liquid crystal layer subjected to optical feedback. This dynamical instability appears as roll dislocations in the spatiotemporal diagrams. We show that it originates from the Gaussian spatial transverse dependence of a control parameter and that its corresponding mechanism is the selection of a local unstable wave number. This instability is the optical counterpart of the ramp-induced Eckhaus instability observed in hydrodynamics.