Abstract

In this paper we investigate the steady-state partial self-trapping of a laser beam with input diameters from 12.6 μm up to 40.8 μm in a photorefractive SBN-crystal in dependence on applied electrical field, input beam diameter and input beam intensity, whereas cross-section of the output beam, saturation time and self-bending are investigated. Under partial self-trapping we understand the waveguiding effect that is not completely compensated by beam diffraction. We find that the output beam size does not depend on the input beam diameter used in the experiment. Beam partial self-trapping as well as self-bending are calculated using a Douglas scheme and compared with experiments. Numerical simulations and experiments are carried out for input beams with Gaussian profile.

© 2005 Optical Society of America