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.     

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.     

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.     

Coherent collisions of photorefractive solitons

We present an experimental study of coherent collisions between one-dimensional bright photorefractive screening solitons in a bulk strontium barium niobate crystal.     

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.     

Multiple incoherent gray photorefractive spatial solitons

We show that an even-number sequence of multiple incoherent gray photorefractive spatial screening solitons is possible. When the external voltage is small, only an incoherent Y-junction photorefractive spatial screening soliton is generated, corresponding to the lowest order in the even-number incoherent soliton sequence. When the external voltage is increased, the incoherent gray soliton beam splits into an even-number sequence of multiple incoherent gray photorefractive spatial screening solitons. For a given physical system such an even-number sequence of multiple incoherent gray photorefractive spatial screening solitons is obtained by either increasing the external voltage and decreasing the full width half maximum (FWHM) of the beam’s intensity or increasing the external voltage and decreasing the beam’s grayness.     

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.     

Gray photorefractive polymeric optical spatial solitons

We show that gray spatial optical solitons are possible in biased photorefractive polymers under steady-state conditions. We find that for a given material parameter the absolute value of a gray photorefractive polymeric soliton's phase decreases with an increase in the beam's grayness, whereas it increases with the material parameter for a given beam's grayness and that the full width half maximum (FWHM) of the gray soliton beam's intensity increases with the beam's grayness when the normalized background intensity and the material parameter are fixed and decreases with an increase in the normalized background intensity when the material parameter is fixed. On the other hand, we also show that N coupled beam evolution equations in biased photorefractive polymers can exhibit multicomponent gray solitons. These multicomponent gray solitons can be obtained provided that the N coupled beams share the same polarization, wavelength, and are incoherent with one another. The characteristics and stability properties of these multicomponent gray solitons are also discussed in detail.     

All optical quasi-steady-state photorefractive spatial solitons

We have created a one- (rather than two-) dimensional quasi-steady-state photorefractive spatial soliton induced by a laser beam instead of an applied electric field. The formation of this type of spatial soliton depends on the intensity of the self-trapped beam, which is different from quasi-steady-state spatial solitons reported in the literature. The optically induced spatial soliton can be exploited in all optical switching applications.     

Spatial solitons in centrosymmetric photorefractive media

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

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.     

Manakov solitons in centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals due to two-photon photorefractive effect

We present a theoretical study on incoherently coupled soliton pairs in two-photon centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals under steady-state conditions. It is shown that the bright-bright, dark-dark and bright-dark Manakov soliton pairs can be generated in two-photon centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals when the total intensity of two soliton components is much lower than the dark irradiance.     

Profile of photorefractive one-dimensional bright spatial solitons

Analytic solutions for the profile of one-dimensional bright photorefractive steady-state spatial solitons generated as a result of screening of drift or photogalvanic currents are found by means of a power series development. The solutions are valid over all ranges of intensities. We also give simple analytic expressions that describe the soliton full width at half-maximum as a function of all important experimental parameters.     

Incoherent spatial optical solitons in photorefractive crystals

In this paper we have presented a theoretical investigation on the propagation properties of incoherent solitons in photorefractive media which is characterized by noninstantaneous saturating nonlinearity. Using mutual coherence function approach, we have obtained the equation of existence curve for such solitons. We have discussed the coherence characteristics of these solitons. We have found that solitons with a particular radius can possess two different critical powers. The dynamical evolution of these solitons has been discussed in detail by both analytical and numerical simulation.     

Extraordinary solitons in non-centrally symmetric photorefractive crystals

The directions of the phase normals for which extraordinary bright screened solitons can be formed are described analytically. Formulas are derived for the directions in which extraordinary solitons can exist in lithium niobate for arbitrary orientations of the external electric field. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 403–410, May–June, 2009.     

Spatial photorefractive solitons with picosecond laser pulses

We report on the formation of spatial optical solitons in photorefractive media using picosecond laser pulses. Solitons are generated with laser pulses in the visible and infrared wavelength region using photorefractive strontium barium niobate. The dynamics of the soliton formation and the region of existence is studied in detail.     

Bright screening solitons in a photorefractive waveguide

Characteristics of propagation of bright screening solitons are studied in a photorefractive waveguide. The investigation is performed under paraxial wave approximation and Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin–Jefferys approximation. A Gaussian ansatz for the soliton shape is used instead of the numerical solutions. The planar waveguide structure intensifies the self-focussing while decreasing the minimum or threshold power required for self trapping. The waveguide structure embedded in the crystal can self trap a soliton of power lower than the threshold power. As the waveguide parameter increases, minimum required power to self trap the beam decreases. The existence of bistable states is also predicted. Four regimes of power are identified in which the solitons behaviour is studied. Propagation of screening solitons in a photorefractive waveguide is studied in the absence of the photovoltaic and pyroelectric effect for the first time.     

Circular solitons do not exist in photorefractive media

The shape of two-dimensional solitary beams propagating in photorefractive media with an externally applied field is studied. The analytical results indicate that, for both focusing and defocusing nonlinearities, radially symmetric self-channeled beams do not exist. Some recent experiments are interpreted in light of the present results.