Nonlocal incoherent solitons

We investigate the propagation of partially coherent beams in spatially nonlocal nonlinear media with a logarithmic type of nonlinearity. We derive analytical formulas for the evolution of the beam parameters and conditions for the formation of nonlocal incoherent solitons.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Generic features of modulational instability in nonlocal Kerr media

The modulational instability (MI) of plane waves in nonlocal Kerr media is studied for a general, localized, response function. It is shown that there always exists a finite number of well-separated MI gain bands, with each of them characterised by a unique maximal growth rate. This is a general property and is demonstrated here for the Gaussian, exponential, and rectangular response functions. In case of a focusing nonlinearity it is shown that although the nonlocality tends to suppress MI, it can never remove it completely, irrespectively of the particular shape of the response function. For a defocusing nonlinearity the stability properties depend sensitively on the profile of the response function. It is shown that plane waves are always stable for response functions with a positive-definite spectrum, such as Gaussians and exponentials. On the other hand, response functions whose spectra change sign (e.g., rectangular) will lead to MI in the high wavenumber regime, provided the typical length scale of the response function exceeds a certain threshold. Finally, we address the case of generalized multi-component response functions consisting of a weighted sum of N response functions with known properties.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Asymmetric partially coherent solitons in saturable nonlinear media

We investigate theoretically properties of partially coherent solitons in optical nonlinear media with slow saturable nonlinearity. We have found numerically that such a medium can support spatial solitons which are asymmetric in shape and are composed of only a finite number of modes associated with the self-induced waveguide. It is shown that these asymmetric spatial solitons can propagate many diffraction lengths without changes, but that collisions change their shape and may split them apart. [S1063-651X(99)12808-3

Spatial solitons and light-induced instabilities in colloidal media

We study nonlinear light propagation in colloidal nanosuspensions. We introduce a novel model for the nonlinear response of colloids which describes consistently the system in the regimes of low and high light intensities and low/large concentrations of colloidal particles. We employ this model to study the light-induced instabilities and demonstrate the formation of stable spatial solitons as well as the existence of a bistability regime

Bright optical beams in weakly nonlocal media: variational analysis

We employ a variational technique to describe the propagation of a Gaussian beam in a nonlinear, weakly nonlocal medium and derive the conditions for breathing soliton formation in both one and two transverse dimensions. The reduced one-dimensional results agree quantitatively with known exact nonlocal soliton solutions. We subsequently formulate a simple procedure for estimating the strength of a weak nonlocality and verify its applicability by direct numerical simulations

Soliton interactions and transformations in colloidal media

We study nonlinear light propagation in colloidal suspensions of spherical dielectric nanoparticles. We analyze the existence and properties of one-dimensional self-trapped beams (spatial optical solitons) in such media and demonstrate the existence of

Spatial Solitons in Optically-Induced Gratings

We study experimentally nonlinear localization effects in optically-induced gratings created by interfering plane waves in a photorefractive crystal. We demonstrate the generation of spatial bright solitons similar to those observed in arrays of coupled optical waveguides. We also create pairs of out-of-phase solitons which resemble ``twisted'' localized states in nonlinear lattices.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures. accepted in O

Nonlinear Optical Effects at Ferroelectric Domain Walls

Ferroelectric materials tend to form macroscopic domains of electric polarization. These domains have different orientations and coexist in the medium being separated by domain walls. In general, symmetry and structure of ferroelectric domain walls differ from their parent materials and consequently lead to abundant physical properties. In this book chapter, we review the nonlinear optical effects which are bundled with ferroelectric domain walls or whose properties can be significantly enhanced by the presence of domain walls. In particular, we have reviewed Google Scholar articles from 2008 to 2018 using the keywords “nonlinear Čerenkov radiation from ferroelectrics”. We show that the spatially steep modulation of the second-order nonlinear optical coefficient across the domain wall leads to strong emission of the Čerenkov second harmonic in bulk materials. This feature also enables an effective nondestructive method for three-dimensional visualization and diagnostics of ferroelectric domain structures with very high resolution and high contrast

Photophoretic manipulation of absorbing aerosol particles with vortex beams: theory versus experiment

We develop a theoretical approach for describing the optical trapping and manipulation of carbon nanoclusters in air with a dual-vortex optical trap, as realized recently in experiment [V. Shvedov et al., Opt. Express 17, 5743 (2009)]. We calculate both longitudinal and transverse photophoretic forces acting on a spherical absorbing particle, and then compare our theoretical predictions with the experimental data