Modulation instabilities in a system of four coupled, nonlinear Schrödinger equations

The modulation instability of continuous waves for a system of four coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations, two of which are in the unstable regime, is studied. In earlier studies, plane or continuous waves for a system of two coupled, nonlinear Schrödinger equations is shown to exhibit modulation instability (MI), even if both modes are in the normal dispersion regime, provided that the coefficient of cross phase modulation (XPM) is larger than that of self phase modulation (SPM). Requirements for MI in this system of four coupled, nonlinear Schrödinger equations can be relaxed. MI can occur even if the magnitude of XPM is less than that of SPM, and the magnitude of instability is generally larger than that of each mode alone. The implications for parametric process and wavelength exchange in optical physics with two pump waves are discussed.