Adiabatic self-focusing in media with spatially variable nonlinearity

An optical medium whose nonlinearity can be spatially adjusted is considered to study beam reshaping. The concept is applied to perform adiabatic self-focusing of broad beams. Experimental results are obtained in a photorefractive lithium niobate crystal where the self-focusing nonlinearity is controlled over propagation by a temperature gradient. As a demonstration, gradual self-focusing is shown to transform an incoming beam into an output circular spot 10 times smaller over a 2 cm long crystal submitted to a 30 °C temperature gradient. Once formed, the adiabatic self-focused beam has inscribed a funnel waveguide in the crystal.