Abstract

A self-guided wave (or spatial solitary wave) propagates without diffraction in an homogeneous nonlinear medium because the tendency to diffract is balanced by containment due to the nonlinearly induced refractive index change.^1,2 We have developed a simple method for understanding the conditions under which self-guided waves can exist and their qualitative properties. We emphasize that the results obtained here for self-guided waves apply to homogeneous media with any arbitrary intensity dependent nonlinearity, not just to Kerr law media.

© 1993 Optical Society of America