Modulational Instabilities in Fibres with Periodic Dispersion

It is widely recognised that nonlinear optical phenomena are of crucial importance when understanding the operation of long haul optical communication systems[1]. The Kerr effect (power dependent refractive index) leads to the exchange of energy between the different frequencies present in the fibre, a process known as four wave mixing. These interactions may be between the different channels of a wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) system, between the different frequency components of a single channel, or between a signal and a.s.e. noise introduced by optical amplifiers.