Interaction of spatial photorefractive solitons in a planar waveguide

We report the observation of collisions between one-dimensional bright photorefractive screening solitons in a planar strontium–barium niobate waveguide. Depending on the intersection angle of the two solitons and their relative phase, we observe soliton fusion, repelling, energy exchange, and the creation of a third soliton upon interaction. Received: 4 November 1998 / Revised version: 3 December 1998 / Published online: 24 February 1999     

Bright ordinary solitons in non-centrally symmetric photorefractive crystals

The directions of the phase normal such that bright ordinary screening solitons can exist in non-centrally symmetric crystals are determined analytically. The results are used to calculate the directions of solitons in lithium niobate. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 152–160, January–February, 2009.     

Analytical solution for photorefractive screening solitons

We study formation and interaction of one-dimensional screening solitons in a photorefractive medium with sublinear dependence of the photoconductivity on light intensity. We find an exact analytical solution to the corresponding nonlinear Schrodinger equation. We show that these solitons are stable in propagation and their interaction is generic for solitons of saturable nonlinearity. In particular, they may fuse or "give birth" to new solitons upon collision.     

Observation of bright spatial photorefractive solitons in a planar strontium barium niobate waveguide

We have obtained stationary bright spatial solitons in a planar photorefractive strontium barium niobate waveguide for visible light ranging from 514.5 to 780 nm. Even for larger wavelengths (lambda=1047 nm) strong self-focusing of the beam was observed; however, input power had to be some orders of magnitude higher than for visible light for self-focusing to occur. Furthermore, we found transient self-trapping of red light (lambda=632.8 nm) that corresponds to the formation of bright quasi-steady-state solitons.     

Optical control of arrays of photorefractive screening solitons

We discuss the creation of an array of 9 x 9 photorefractive spatial screening solitons in a strontium barium niobate crystal. We investigate the waveguide properties of each channel with a beam of different wavelength and find that the waveguides guide the probe beam independently. A supplementary beam is used to influence the paths of the array solitons and to effectively combine two channels by use of mutual attraction of solitons. To our knowledge this is the first all-optical control of an array of photorefractive solitons. Furthermore, we show that in principle image procession is possible with parallel propagation of photorefractive solitons.     

Incoherently coupled screening photovoltaic spatial solitons in biased photovoltaic photorefractive crystals

Propagation characteristics and stability properties of two-component composite screening photovoltaic spatial solitons have been analyzed in this paper. Employing paraxial ray approximation, we have identified a very large family of new two-component composite screening photovoltaic solitons in photovoltaic-photorefractive crystals. These composite solitons can exist only when the carrier beams have the same polarization, wavelength and are mutually incoherent. We have identified a wide parameter space involving spatial width and power where these composite solitons can exist as a stationary entity. The identified regions of existence of solitons give a deeper understanding of these solitons and reveal some interesting properties. We have shown that composite solitons with different widths cannot propagate as a stationary entity. A relevant example has been provided where the crystal is LiNbO₃ or BaTiO₃. In addition, we have shown that in the new family of solitons, a degenerate pair with equal peak power possesses bistable property. Both paraxial theory and numerical simulation show that the identified family of composite solitons is stable.     

Annihilation of photorefractive solitons

We investigate experimentally the interaction of two-dimensional solitary beams in photorefractive strontium barium niobate crystal. We show that simultaneous collision of many solitons can result in complete annihilation of some of them. This effect depends on the relative phases of the solitons and may be useful for application in the formation of multiport waveguide junctions.     

Bright solitons in ultracold atoms

We review old and recent experimental and theoretical results on bright solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates made of alkali-metal atoms and under external optical confinement. First we deduce the three-dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equation (3D GPE) from the Dirac–Frenkel action of interacting identical bosons within a time-dependent Hartree approximation. Then we discuss the dimensional reduction of the GPE from 3D to 1D, deriving the 1D GPE and also the 1D nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation (1D NPSE). Finally, we analyze the bright solition solutions of both 1D GPE and 1D NPSE and compare these theoretical predictions with the available experimental data.     

Self-bending of photorefractive solitons

Self-bending of photorefractive solitons is caused by diffusion in photorefractive crystals and becomes an important effect when the beam size is in the range of the charge carriers diffusion length. In this paper we present an experimental and numerical examination of the beam bending dependence on relevant parameters such as the applied electric field and the beam intensity. We demonstrate that the bending dependence on the electric field in the low saturation regime has the form of a square function at low values of the field and becomes linear for higher values. For stronger saturation the curve gets the form of a square root function. The bending dependence on the beam intensity has a maximum at defined intensity. The experimental data are compared with numerical simulations, giving a good qualitative agreement.     

Bright and dark solitons in a cascaded system

This paper studies coupled nonlinear Schrödinger's equation (NLSE) that appears in a cascaded system. Both Kerr law and power law nonlinearities are considered. Bright and dark soliton solutions are retrieved for these nonlinearities. The corresponding constraint conditions naturally fall out that from the mathematical expressions that must remain valid for solitons to exist.     

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

We present experimental evidence demonstrating that the photorefractive-index change responsible for the formation of photorefractive spatial screening solitons and coherent collisions between them is primarily isotropic in nature, even though the photorefractive medium is inherently anisotropic.     

Temporal analysis of low-amplitude screening spatial solitons due to two-photon photorefractive effect

This paper investigates the temporal behavior of two-photon screening spatial solitons using a numerical technique. An expression for the time-dependent dynamical evolution is obtained. The results show that the width of bright solitons decreases monotonically to a minimum toward steady state value when the intensity ratio of the solitons is small, which is in low-amplitude regime. Within the same propagation time, the intensity width of solitons decreases with increase in soliton intensity ratio and with increase in external electric field. The formation time of solitons is independent of the intensity ratio of the solitons or the external electric field and is close to a constant determined by the dielectric relaxation time. The temporal properties of dark solitons are similar to those of the bright solitons.     

Manakov solitons in biased photorefractive polymer

The coupled equations for the incoherently coupled soliton pairs in biased photorefractive polymer are provided. It is shown that the coupled soliton equations reduce to Manakov equations when the total intensity of two coupled solitons is much lower than the background illumination. The bright-bright, dark-dark, and grey-grey soliton pair solutions of these Manakov equations are obtained, and the characteristics of these Manakov solitons are also discussed.     

Holographic solitons in centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals

The conditions necessary for obtaining holographic solitons in centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals are discussed. When both the intensity modulation of the two interacting waves and the angle between the vector of each beam and the longitudinal axis are small, centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals with a positive (or negative ) effective quadratic electro-optic coefficient are able to support bright (or dark) holographic solitons. The intensity width at half maximum of bright and dark solitons is inversely proportional to the external bias field. The holographic solitons can also exit in dissipative centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals when the applied external bias field is large enough.     

Holographic solitons in photorefractive dissipative systems

A new kind of holographic soliton is proposed for a photorefractive dissipative system consisting of a biased photorefractive crystal and a strong pump beam with a uniform spatial distribution in both transverse dimensions. The self-trapping beam in the system can evolve into a spatial soliton when it couples coherently with the pump beam by two-wave mixing. Unlike the holographic solitons recently proposed by Cohen et al. [Opt. Lett. 27, 2031 (2002)], the most unique features of the present solitons are that they have a fixed amplitude and width that are determined completely by the system parameters and that their existence conditions are independent of the polarity of the bias field. Numerical simulations show that these solitons are stable relative to small perturbations.     

Spatial solitons in centrosymmetric photorefractive media

We predict spatial solitons in photorefractive centrosymmetric media driven by the dc Kerr effect.     

High-intensity nanosecond photorefractive spatial solitons

We report the observation of high-intensity solitons in a bulk strontium barium niobate crystal. The solitons are observed by use of 8-ns optical pulses with optical intensities greater than 100 MW/cm(2). Each soliton forms and attains its minimum width after roughly ten pulses and reaches e(-1) of the steady-state width after the first pulse. We find good agreement between experimental observations and theoretical predictions for the soliton existence curve.