Abstract

Recent researches [1-3] have shown the possibility of exciting two-dimensional spatial soliton-like structures in the transverse field profile of broad-area nonlinear optical devices. Such features attracted much interest for the realization of novel procedures for encoding and processing optical information. Two dimensional spatial solitons are unstable versus diffractive collapse (broadening) in the purely dispersive and Hamiltonian self focusing (defocusing) configuration, while in absorptive-dispersive driven systems with saturation, evidence of stable spatial solitons has been found [2-4]. When the system is characterized by the presence of a modulational instability, these Localized Structures (LS) consist of portions of modulated field profile (peaks of intensity) coexisting in the transverse plane with a homogeneous background.

© 1996 Optical Society of America