Nonparaxial dark solitons in optical Kerr media

Abstract

We show that the nonlinear equation that describes nonparaxial Kerr propagation, together with the already reported bright-soliton solutions, admits of ͑1 1 1͒D dark-soliton solutions. Unlike their paraxial counterparts, dark solitons can be excited only if their asymptotic normalized intensity u 2 is below 3͞7; their width becomes constant when u 2 approaches this value. © 2005 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 190.0190, 190.3270, 190.5530. Optical spatial solitons are beams in which linear diffraction is exactly compensated for by nonlinearity through self-lensing. This phenomenon has allowed the observation of self-trapping owing to the optical Kerr effect in glass, in polymers, in gases, and in liquids, and also was observed in photorefractive materials and in crystals that exhibit a quadratic (second-order) response.

Dark solitons at nonlinear interfaces

“…In contrast to other nonparaxial regimes [17,18], where effects have their origin in the strong focusing of high-intensity beams, we consider broad (compared to the optical wavelength) beams of moderate power. Nonparaxiality then arises solely from angular effects.…”

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

“…46,47 Hence, the polarization-scrambling term ∇(∇ · E) can be safely neglected [14][15][16]48,49 and attention is paid exclusively to scalar diffraction. 26,41 We consider a TE-polarized cw beam, as represented bỹ…”

On the limits of validity of nonparaxial propagation equations in Kerr media

“…where the prime stands for the derivative with respect to ξ and A = a + b, B = c + d. Equation (5) can be integrated by following a general procedure (see, e.g., [7]). After…”