Instability dynamics in photonic plasma

It is now well-established that the nonlinear propagation of spatially incoherent light can be treated as a photonic plasma, with optical speckles interacting via Langmuir-type modulation waves. Here, we examine basic instability dynamics for different spectral distributions. In particular, we experimentally observe modulation and bump-on-tail instabilities, in both the weak and strong turbulence regimes. We directly measure momentum and energy exchange/cascades across a range of coupling strengths, including the transition between turbulence regimes. Applications to both plasma and imaging systems will be discussed.