Dynamics of the nonlinear modulational instability in optical fibers

We study the nonlinear evolution in optical fibers of a modulationally unstable continuous wave. We find that a good description of the propagation can be analytically obtained by a simple truncated three-wave model. The dynamic viewpoint may give an important physical insight in different processes, such as frequency conversion of modulated signals, all-optical generation of temporal codes, and the onset of spatiotemporal chaos.