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Direct observation of Rogue Waves in optical turbulence using Time Microscopy

The formation of coherent structures in noise driven phenomena and in Turbulence is a complex and fundamental question. A particulary important structure is the so-called Rogue Wave (RW) that arises as the sudden appearance of a localized and giant peak. First studied in Oceanography, RWs have been extensively investigated in Optics since 2007, in particular in optical fibers experiments on supercontinua and optical turbulence. However the typical time scales underlying the random dynamics in those experiments prevented --up to now-- the direct observation of isolated RWs. Here we report on the direct observation of RWs, using an ultrafast acquisition system equivalent to microscope in the time domain. The RWs are generated by nonlinear propagation of random waves inside an optical fiber, and recorded with $\sim 250$~fs resolution. Our experiments demonstrate the central role played by "breathers-like" solutions of the one-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation (1D-NLSE) in the formation of RWs