Magneto-optical Control of Light Collapse in Bulk Kerr Media

Abstract

The Cotton-Mouton (Voigt) and Faraday effects induce adjustable linear and circular birefringence in optical media with external magnetic fields. We consider these effects as a technique for magneto-optical control of the transmission of bimodal light beams through Kerr-nonlinear crystals. Numerical analysis suggests that a properly applied magnetic field may accelerate, delay, or arrest the collapse of (2+1)D beams. Experimentally, the magnetic collapse acceleration is demonstrated in a bulk yttrium iron garnet (YIG) crystal.

Wave instabilities in the presence of non vanishing background in nonlinear Schrödinger systems

“…The critical case is by far the most intriguing one due to the sensitivity of the collapse to perturbations. In this context the most studied case, namely the focusing cubic nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation, which is critical in two transverse dimensions, is still a formidable ground to understand the dynamics of collapse 17 18 19 20 in spite of long standing investigations 3 4 5 6 . However, many physical classical and quantum systems need to be described in terms of generalized NLS (gNLS) equation which accounts for higher-order nonlinearities.…”

Control of nonlinear collapse in magnetooptical Kerr media

“…Specifically, in the case of magnetic nonlinear media, we propose to take advantage of the superposition [7] of the linear (∆ n l ) and circular (∆ n c ) birefringences, induced in the presence of an external magnetic field via the Cotton-Mouton and Faraday effects, respectively [7]- [8]. We demonstrate that, for a fixed value of the input optical power (exceeding the critical one), the application of an appropriate magnetic field (i.e., depending on its strength and direction) may change the beam-propagation dynamics in such a way that acceleration, delay or even complete elimination of the collapse may occur [9].…”

“…The experimental configuration and material parameters for the available MO crystals impose limitations on the achievable range of birefringence coefficients. To date, only the acceleration of the collapse was observed in the experiment [9]. Nevertheless, we can theoretically extend the possible range of parameters to investigate different dynamical ranges in more general settings.…”

Suppression of Collapse for Spiraling Elliptic Solitons

“…Different suggestions have been made on how to arrest the collapse, e.g., by introducing alternating focusing-defocusing layers [6], nonlocal response [7], optical gain [8], or magneto-optic response [9]. The problem remains unsolved for pure Kerr media, however, although nonparaxial coupling of polarization components was shown to provide stabilization to circularly polarized beams [10].…”

“…DOI A balance between self-focusing and diffraction of light in two transverse dimensions is known to support the formation of optical spatial solitons [1], such as the bellshaped (fundamental) solitons [2], which undergo catastrophic collapse in bulk Kerr media [3][4][5]. Different suggestions have been made on how to arrest the collapse, e.g., by introducing alternating focusing-defocusing layers [6], nonlocal response [7], optical gain [8], or magneto-optic response [9]. The problem remains unsolved for pure Kerr media, however, although nonparaxial coupling of polarization components was shown to provide stabilization to circularly polarized beams [10].…”