Solitons in photonic crystals

Modulational instability, solitons and beam propagation in spatially nonlocal nonlinear media

“…Circuits with complex functionality and all-optical switching or processing can then be achieved through the evolution and interaction of one or more solitons [1]. This concept has now been verified in several optical materials [2,3] and a number of new soliton effects have emerged through these studies, such as fusion, fission, and formation of bound states. Due to the development of materials with stronger nonlinearities the optical power needed to create such virtual circuits has been reduced to the milliwatt and even microwatt level, bringing the concept nearer to practical implementation.…”

Tunable refraction and reflection of self-confined light beams

“…Optical spatial solitons have been investigated in a variety of nonlinear materials, both in one-and two-dimensional geometries [1][2][3] . In a few cases, the problem of filaments reaching an interface has been tackled theoretically with reference to cubic [6][7][8][9][10] and quadratic responses 11 , and experimental demonstrations have been reported in quadratically nonlinear media at grazing incidence 12,13 , in cubically nonlinear semiconductor waveguides with a prism electrode 14 and in prism-shaped photovoltaic crystals 15 .…”

“…L ight filaments or optical spatial solitons are self-confined (non-spreading) beams that originate from the balance between diffraction and self-focusing in nonlinear optical media (those with a response dependent on the level of excitation) [1][2][3] . Owing to their ability to self-trap as well as to guide weaker signals (even if differing in colour or modulation format) within the waveguides or 'light-pipes' they induce, optical spatial solitons could form the basis of future all-optical processing networks 4,5 .…”

Spontaneous motion of localized structures and localized patterns induced by delayed feedback

“…The motion can be induced by the vorticity [28,29], by finite relaxation rates [30][31][32], phase gradient [33], so-called Ising-Bloch transition [34][35][36], by walk-off or convection or by the symmetry breaking due to off-axis feedback [37][38][39][40][41], or even by resonator detuning [42]. This subject is relatively well understood (see overviews on that issue [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54]). So far, however, the inclusion of the delayed feedback in the dynamics of spatially extended systems is a relatively new area of research [55,56].…”