Abstract

A beam of sufficient intensity can be made self guiding in a bulk medium^1,2,3,4. It is intriguing to speculate that such solitary waves could be the building block for cellmate all optical devices and computing. Here we are concerned with directing one solitary wave by another. In particular, we show that two solitary waves, depending on various factors, can attract, repel, remain unchanged in their initial direction or spiral about each other in a double helical trajectory. Our discussion concerns both bright and dark solitary waves in Kerr and saturating material.

© 1991 Optical Society of America