Abstract

Self-guided optical beams (or spatial solitons) have attracted substantial research interest because they hold a promise of ultra-fast all-optical switching and controlling light by light. Soliton interactions have been analyzed theoretically and experimentally mostly for planar geometries [1], and only recent experimental discoveries of stable (2+1)-dimensional solitons in different nonlinear media [2] initiated the experimental study of fully three-dimensional interactions between solitary beams. Recently, experimental results demonstrating non-planar interaction and spiralling of two incoherent beams in a photorefractive medium have been reported [3]. However, since earlier papers on the soliton interactions [4], no systematic analysis of non-planar soliton interactions in a bulk medium has been developed so far.

© 1998 Optical Society of America