• 
• Tweet
• Print This

  Email This

• PrintPDF

Physics World points us to an article from the most respected journal in science; Nature. They tell us;

Every so often mariners report the sighting of a huge wave towering up to 30 m above the regular swells of the ocean surface. No-one is sure why these rogue waves form, but now physicists in the US and Germany have managed to produce equivalent optical rogue waves by launching laser pulses into photonic-crystal fibres. Having performed computer simulations of the optical system, the researchers suggest that optical rogue waves, and therefore oceanic rogue waves, are seeded by noise.

A photonic-crystal fibre is a transparent strand containing hundreds of regularly-spaced air holes running throughout its length. The alternating refractive index produced by this structure has a non-linear effect on light waves, shifting their frequency depending on the wave intensity.

When a wave pulse — which comprises many waves with a bell-shaped distribution of frequencies — enters a photonic crystal fibre, its frequency spectrum is broadened. Rogue waves are examples of wave pulses, but their short, sharp nature requires too broad a frequency spectrum to be produced by this process alone.

Ok this isn’t the easiest article to read but is well worth the effort. You can find the entire article HERE.

Related Articles:

1. Rogue Waves – A Call To Action
2. The Deadliest Catch – Rogue Wave Edition
3. Deadliest Catch – Monster Waves
4. Wave Interaction – Photoinstrumentation Photo