Observation of migrating transverse Anderson localizations of light in nonlocal media

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of the interaction and attraction of many localized modes in a two dimensional (2D) system realized by a disordered optical fiber supporting transverse Anderson localization. We show that a nonlocal optically nonlinear response of thermal origin alters the localization length by an amount determined by the optical power and also induces an action at a distance between the localized modes and their spatial migration. Evidence of a collective and strongly interacting regime is given.