Dark solitons at nonlinear interfaces

Helmholtz Solitons in Optical Materials With a Dual Power-Law Refractive Index

“…Our analyses are of fundamental physical importance, opening up the possibility of modelling beam multiplexing 9 and interface [10][11][12] applications in a much wider range of optical media. Advances in materials fabrication methods and refractive-index patterning techniques mean that in the foreseeable future, waveguide architectures with application-specific (n σ , n 2σ ), as well as tailored values of σ, may well be within reach.…”

“…In fundamental optical geometries, such as nonlinear beam interactions and soliton refraction, this broadening can lead to corrections to paraxial predictions exceeding 100%, and even give rise to new regimes of behaviour. [9][10][11][12] In the limiting cases of θ = ± 90°, solution (11) becomes…”

“…Paraxial angles of interaction, incidence, reflection, and refraction limit modelling to negligible or nearly-negligible magnitudes (with respect to the reference direction). Recently we have exploited exact analytical Helmholtz solitons to quantify, for the first time, the full range of angular characteristics of interaction 9 and interface [10][11][12] geometries.…”

Bistable Helmholtz dark spatial optical solitons in materials with self-defocusing saturable nonlinearity

“…41 Knowledge about the mathematical form and physical stability properties of these solutions opens up the possibility of modelling oblique beam propagation in a wide range of device architectures. For instance, the refraction of bright 42,43 and dark 44,45 beams at a single interface are problems of pivotal importance where non-trivial angular effects are the rule rather than the exception. These research areas can now be extended beyond Kerr media to configurations involving both cubic-quintic 25,59 and, crucially, saturable-type materials.…”

“…Helmholtz soliton theory then provides a compact and elegant mathematical formalism for modelling oblique-evolution properties of scalar beams at arbitrary angles (in the laboratory frame) with respect to the longitudinal reference direction. 26 Indeed, off-axis considerations are elementary for even the simplest configurations: (i) interacting beams 40 and (ii) reflection / refraction of bright 42,43 and dark 44,45 solitons at interfaces between dissimilar materials. The Helmholtz angular type of nonparaxiality thus underpins, in principle, almost every conceivable optical device design and architecture.…”