Modulation instability of two-dimensional plane wave in nonlocal nonlinear media with linear anisotropic diffraction

Abstract Modulation instability of two-dimensional plane wave is investigated in nonlocal nonlinear media with linear anisotropic diffraction. Employing linear-stability analysis, we obtain the analytical results of the growth rate of the modulation instability. Analytical results are also verified numerically with split-step Fourier transform method which show that modulation instability of the plane wave can be suppressed (or eliminated) by reducing the diffraction index and the power of the plane wave or increasing the degree of nonlocality.