18 research outputs found
Observation of dipole-mode vector solitons
We report on the first experimental observation of a novel type of optical
vector soliton, a {\em dipole-mode soliton}, recently predicted theoretically.
We show that these vector solitons can be generated in a photorefractive medium
employing two different processes: a phase imprinting, and a symmetry-breaking
instability of a vortex-mode vector soliton. The experimental results display
remarkable agreement with the theory, and confirm the robust nature of these
radially asymmetric two-component solitary waves.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures; pictures in the PRL version are better qualit
Scattering of dipole-mode vector solitons: Theory and experiment
We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the scattering properties of
optical dipole-mode vector solitons - radially asymmetric composite
self-trapped optical beams. First, we analyze the soliton collisions in an
isotropic two-component model with a saturable nonlinearity and demonstrate
that in many cases the scattering dynamics of the dipole-mode solitons allows
us to classify them as ``molecules of light'' - extremely robust spatially
localized objects which survive a wide range of interactions and display many
properties of composite states with a rotational degree of freedom. Next, we
study the composite solitons in an anisotropic nonlinear model that describes
photorefractive nonlinearities, and also present a number of experimental
verifications of our analysis.Comment: 8 pages + 4 pages of figure
Experimental control of steady state photorefractive self-focusing in InP:Fe at infrared wavelengths
Three Dimensional Trajectories of Interacting Incoherent Photorefractive Solitons
We investigate theoretically and experimentally the three dimensional propagation and interaction of mutually incoherent screening spatial solitons in an SBN crystal. We show that the interaction of solitons results in complex trajectories which typically show partial mutual spiraling, followed by damped oscillations and the fusion of solitons. This nontrivial behavior is caused by the anisotropy of the nonlinear refractive index change in the crystal