Abstract

A theory based on the paraxial propagation of laser beams in nonlinear media and on the Kukhtarev material equations is developed to explain the interaction of bright spatial screening solitons in photorefractive crystals. A numerical study in three dimensions is performed to reveal qualitative and quantitative agreement with experiment. Screening solitons display a variety of propagation effects, such as inelastic scattering, attraction and repulsion, and oscillation and spiraling. In particular, we investigate the influence of initial separation and launching directions on the propagation of incoherent solitons.

© 2000 Optical Society of America

Interactions between spatial screening solitons propagating in opposite directions

Carmel Rotschild, Oren Cohen, Ofer Manela, Tal Carmon, and Mordechai Segev
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 21(7) 1354-1357 (2004)

Observation of bound states of interacting vector solitons

Zhigang Chen, Michelle Acks, Elena A. Ostrovskaya, and Yuri S. Kivshar
Opt. Lett. 25(6) 417-419 (2000)

Three-dimensional optical beam propagation and solitons in photorefractive crystals

Bruno Crosignani, Paolo Di Porto, Antonio Degasperis, Mordechai Segev, and Stefano Trillo
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(11) 3078-3090 (1997)

Primarily isotropic nature of photorefractive screening solitons and the interactions between them

Hongxing Meng, Gregory Salamo, and Mordechai Segev
Opt. Lett. 23(12) 897-899 (1998)

Propagation of optical beams and the properties of two-dimensional spatial solitons in media with a local saturable nonlinear refractive index

S. Gatz and J. Herrmann
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(7) 1795-1806 (1997)