Optical Soliton Intabilities and Phase Control in Non-Local Polymeric Metamaterials with Higher-Order Saturable Responses

International Journal of Physics | Vol. 17, No. 7, July 2026 | pp. 49–56

DOI: 10.46882/2026/IJP/000195

Research Article

Title: Optical Soliton Intabilities and Phase Control in Non-Local Polymeric Metamaterials with Higher-Order Saturable Responses

Names of Authors: L. K. Rousseau¹, G. R. Davies²

Authors’ Affiliations:
¹ Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
² School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

Abstract: Controlling ultra-short laser pulse propagation tracks and eliminating high-power beam filamentation are critical operational tasks when developing polymer-based photonic components, all-optical computing routers, and microcircuit routers. This study models optical soliton dynamics and characterises modulation instability profiles inside non-local polymeric metamaterials exhibiting higher-order saturable electronic non-linearities. We solved the generalized non-linear Schrödinger equations including higher-order perturbation corrections, specifically third-order dispersion, self-steepening, and delayed Raman response steps. The numerical simulations used a variational approach paired with split-step Fourier schemes to extract exact single-soliton and breather solutions. The results demonstrate that high spatial non-locality parameters effectively suppress catastrophic self-focusing collapse nodes by smoothing localized wavefront phase errors. The modulation instability growth rate was tracked against changing spatial perturbation frequencies, highlighting a maximum gain coefficient of g = 2.95 cm⁻¹ under an input beam intensity of 2.2 kW/cm². Expanding the non-locality parameter scales down the maximum instability gain by 70.0%, preventing pulse fragmentation across waveguides.

Keywords: Nonlinear optics; spatial solitons; nonlinear Schrödinger equation; modulational instability; non-local media; polymeric metamaterials

Manuscript Timeline: Received: April 15, 2026; Revised: June 02, 2026; Accepted: June 22, 2026; Published: July 15, 2026

Citation: Rousseau, L. K., & Davies, G. R. (2026). Optical Soliton Intabilities and Phase Control in Non-Local Polymeric Metamaterials with Higher-Order Saturable Responses. International Journal of Physics, 17(7), 49–56.

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