Optical pattern formation of laser fields in the Rydberg atomic gases

We study the phenomena of long-wave and short-wave modulation instabilities (LMI and SMI) in Rydberg atomic gases within the framework of the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equations in the local and nonlocal regions (characterized by the ratio of beam radius to radius of Rydberg blockade sphere), respectively. We further reveal the rich soliton dynamics arising from interactions of nonlinear waves triggered by LMI. We also show the variety of spatial self-organization pattern formations and their active manipulation due to SMI. Through a synthesis of theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, the self-organized optical structures reported here provide a way for realizing what we believe to be novel optical patterns and solitons based on Rydberg atomic gases.