Polarization and modal attractors in conservative counterpropagating four-wave interaction

• Published in: Europhysics letters Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 88 - 94
• Main Authors: Pitois, S, Picozzi, A, Millot, G, Jauslin, H. R, Haelterman, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.04.2005; EDP Sciences
• Subjects: 05.45.-a; 42.65.-k; 42.81.Dp
• ISSN: 0295-5075; 1286-4854
• DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2004-10469-9

An experimental and theoretical study of the resonant four-wave interaction scheme in the counterpropagating configuration reveals the existence of a novel attraction process in Hamiltonian systems. We show analytically that it is the specificity of the boundary conditions inherent in the counterpropagating configuration that makes attraction dynamics possible in spite of the reversible nature of the four-wave interaction. In the context of optics, this novel dynamical feature could be the basic mechanism of a universal polarizer performing total polarization conversion of unpolarized light with, in principle, 100% efficiency.