Extreme or rogue waves are large and unexpected waves appearing with higher probability than predicted by Gaussian statistics. Although their formation is explained by both linear and nonlinear wave propagation, nonlinearity has been considered a necessary ingredient to generate super rogue waves, i.e., an enhanced wave amplification, where the wave amplitudes exceed by far those of ordinary rogue waves. Here we show, experimentally and theoretically, that optical super rogue waves emerge in the simple case of linear light diffraction in one transverse dimension. The underlying physics is a long-range correlation on the random initial phases of the light waves. When subgroups of random phases appear recurrently along the spatial phase distribution, a more ordered phase structure greatly increases the probability of constructive interference to generate super rogue events (non-Gaussian statistics with superlong tails). Our results consist in a significant advance in the understanding of extreme waves formation by linear superposition of random waves, with applications in a large variety of wave systems.

• Received 11 April 2019
• Revised 30 September 2019
• Accepted 8 November 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.102.052219