Dynamics of localized and nonlocalized optical vortex solitons in cubic-quintic nonlinear media

Stable higher-charge vortex solitons in the cubic-quintic medium with a ring potential

We put forward a model for trapping stable optical vortex solitons (VSs) with high topological charges m. The cubic-quintic nonlinear medium with an imprinted ring-shaped modulation of the refractive index is shown to support two branches of VSs, which are controlled by the radius, width, and depth of the modulation profile. While the lower-branch VSs are unstable in their nearly whole existence domain, the upper branch is completely stable. Vortex solitons with m ≤  12 obey the anti-Vakhitov-Kolokolov stability criterion. The results suggest possibilities for the creation of stable narrow optical VSs with a low power, carrying higher vorticities.

Vortex Solitons in Quasi-Phase-Matched Photonic Crystals

We report solutions for stable compound solitons in a three-dimensional quasi-phase-matched photonic crystal with the quadratic (χ^{(2)}) nonlinearity. The photonic crystal is introduced with a checkerboard structure, which can be realized by means of the available technology. The solitons are built as four-peak vortex modes of two types, rhombuses and squares (intersite- and onsite-centered self-trapped states, respectively). Their stability areas are identified in the system's parametric space (rhombuses occupy an essentially broader stability domain), while all bright vortex solitons are subject to strong azimuthal instability in uniform χ^{(2)} media. Possibilities for experimental realization of the solitons are outlined.

Symmetry breaking, Josephson oscillation and self-trapping in a self-bound three-dimensional quantum ball

We study spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), Josephson oscillation, and self-trapping in a stable, mobile, three-dimensional matter-wave spherical quantum ball self-bound by attractive two-body and repulsive three-body interactions. The SSB is realized by a parity-symmetric (a) one-dimensional (1D) double-well potential or (b) a 1D Gaussian potential, both along the z axis and no potential along the x and y axes. In the presence of each of these potentials, the symmetric ground state dynamically evolves into a doubly-degenerate SSB ground state. If the SSB ground state in the double well, predominantly located in the first well (z > 0), is given a small displacement, the quantum ball oscillates with a self-trapping in the first well. For a medium displacement one encounters an asymmetric Josephson oscillation. The asymmetric oscillation is a consequence of SSB. The study is performed by a variational and a numerical solution of a non-linear mean-field model with 1D parity-symmetric perturbations.

Self-structuring of stable dissipative breathing vortex solitons in a colloidal nanosuspension

The self-structuring of laser light in an artificial optical medium composed of a colloidal suspension of nanoparticles is demonstrated using variational and numerical methods extended to dissipative systems. In such engineered materials, competing nonlinear susceptibilities are enhanced by the light induced migration of nanoparticles. The compensation of diffraction by competing focusing and defocusing nonlinearities, together with a balance between loss and gain, allow for self-organization of light and the formation of stable dissipative breathing vortex solitons. Due to their robustness, the breathers may be used for selective dynamic photonic tweezing of nanoparticles in colloidal nanosuspensions.

Dynamics of vortex-antivortex pairs and rarefaction pulses in liquid light

We present a numerical study of the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation in two transverse dimensions, relevant for the propagation of light in certain exotic media. A well-known feature of the model is the existence of flat-top bright solitons of fixed intensity, whose dynamics resembles the physics of a liquid. They support traveling wave solutions, consisting of rarefaction pulses and vortex-antivortex pairs. In this work, we demonstrate how the vortex-antivortex pairs can be generated in bright soliton collisions displaying destructive interference followed by a snake instability. We then discuss the collisional dynamics of the dark excitations for different initial conditions. We describe a number of distinct phenomena including vortex exchange modes, quasielastic flyby scattering, solitonlike crossing, fully inelastic collisions, and rarefaction pulse merging.

Elastic collision and molecule formation of spatiotemporal light bullets in a cubic-quintic nonlinear medium

We consider the statics and dynamics of a stable, mobile three-dimensional (3D) spatiotemporal light bullet in a cubic-quintic nonlinear medium with a focusing cubic nonlinearity above a critical value and any defocusing quintic nonlinearity. The 3D light bullet can propagate with a constant velocity in any direction. Stability of the light bullet under a small perturbation is established numerically. We consider frontal collision between two light bullets with different relative velocities. At large velocities the collision is elastic with the bullets emerge after collision with practically no distortion. At small velocities two bullets coalesce to form a bullet molecule. At a small range of intermediate velocities the localized bullets could form a single entity which expands indefinitely, leading to a destruction of the bullets after collision. The present study is based on an analytic Lagrange variational approximation and a full numerical solution of the 3D nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Drag force in bimodal cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation

We consider a system of two cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equations in two dimensions, coupled by repulsive cubic terms. We analyze situations in which a probe lump of one of the modes is surrounded by a fluid of the other one and analyze their interaction. We find a realization of D'Alembert's paradox for small velocities and nontrivial drag forces for larger ones. We present numerical analysis including the search of static and traveling form-preserving solutions along with simulations of the dynamical evolution in some representative examples.

Vortex bubble formation in pair plasmas

It is shown that delocalized vortex solitons in relativistic pair plasmas with small temperature asymmetries can be unstable for intermediate intensities of the background electromagnetic field. Instability leads to the generation of ever-expanding cavitating bubbles in which the electromagnetic fields are zero. The existence of such electromagnetic bubbles is demonstrated by qualitative arguments based on a hydrodynamic analogy, and by numerical solutions of the appropriate nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a saturating nonlinearity.

Eigenvalue cutoff in the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Using theoretical arguments, we prove the numerically well-known fact that the eigenvalues of all localized stationary solutions of the cubic-quintic (2+1) -dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation exhibit an upper cutoff value. The existence of the cutoff is inferred using Gagliardo-Nirenberg and Hölder inequalities together with Pohozaev identities. We also show that, in the limit of eigenvalues close to zero, the eigenstates of the cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation behave similarly to those of the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

Dynamics of two-dimensional coherent structures in nonlocal nonlinear media

We study stability and dynamics of the single cylindrically symmetric solitary structures and dipolar solitonic molecules in spatially nonlocal media. The main properties of the solitons, vortex solitons, and dipolar solitons are investigated analytically and numerically. The vortices and higher-order solitons show the transverse symmetry-breaking azimuthal instability below some critical power. We find the threshold of the vortex soliton stabilization using the linear stability analysis and direct numerical simulations. The higher-order solitons, which have a central peak and one or more surrounding rings, are also demonstrated to be stabilized in nonlocal nonlinear media. Using direct numerical simulations, we find a class of radially asymmetric, dipolelike solitons and show that, at sufficiently high power, these structures are stable.

Femtosecond optical vortices in air

We examine the robustness of ultrashort optical vortices propagating freely in the atmosphere. We first approximate the stability regions of femtosecond spinning pulses as a function of their topological charge. Next, we numerically demonstrate that atmospheric optical vortices are capable of conveying high power levels in air over hundreds of meters before they break up into filaments.

Two-dimensional solitons with hidden and explicit vorticity in bimodal cubic-quintic media

We demonstrate that two-dimensional two-component bright solitons of an annular shape, carrying vorticities (m,+/-m) in the components, may be stable in media with the cubic-quintic nonlinearity, including the hidden-vorticity (HV) solitons of the type (m,-m) , whose net vorticity is zero. Stability regions for the vortices of both (m,+/-m) types are identified for m=1 , 2, and 3, by dint of the calculation of stability eigenvalues, and in direct simulations. In addition to the well-known symmetry-breaking (external) instability, which splits the ring soliton into a set of fragments flying away in tangential directions, we report two new scenarios of the development of weak instabilities specific to the HV solitons. One features charge flipping, with the two components exchanging angular momentum and periodically reversing the sign of their spins. The composite soliton does not directly split in this case; therefore, we identify such instability as an intrinsic one. Eventually, the soliton splits, as weak radiation loss drives it across the border of the ordinary strong (external) instability. Another scenario proceeds through separation of the vortex cores in the two components, each individual core moving toward the outer edge of the annular soliton. After expulsion of the cores, there remains a zero-vorticity breather with persistent internal vibrations.

Stable vortex solitons supported by competing quadratic and cubic nonlinearities

We address the stability problem for vortex solitons in two-dimensional media combining quadratic and self-defocusing cubic [chi(2):chi(3)- ] nonlinearities. We consider the propagation of spatial beams with intrinsic vorticity S in such bulk optical media. It was earlier found that the S=1 and S=2 solitons can be stable, provided that their power (i.e., transverse size) is large enough, and it was conjectured that all the higher-order vortices with S> or =3 are always unstable. On the other hand, it was recently shown that vortex solitons with S>2 and very large transverse size may be stable in media combining cubic self-focusing and quintic self-defocusing nonlinearities. Here, we demonstrate that the same is true in the chi(2):chi(3)- model, the vortices with S=3 and S=4 being stable in regions occupying, respectively, approximately 3% and 1.5% of their existence domain. The vortex solitons with S>4 are also stable in tiny regions. The results are obtained through computation of stability eigenvalues, and are then checked in direct simulations, with a conclusion that the stable vortices are truly robust ones, easily self-trapping from initial beams with embedded vorticity. The dependence of the stability region on the chi(2) phase-mismatch parameter is specially investigated. We thus conclude that the stability of higher-order two-dimensional vortex solitons in narrow regions is a generic feature of optical media featuring the competition between self-focusing and self-defocusing nonlinearities. A qualitative analytical explanation to this feature is proposed.

Robust soliton clusters in media with competing cubic and quintic nonlinearities

Systematic results are reported for dynamics of circular patterns ("necklaces"), composed of fundamental solitons and carrying orbital angular momentum, in the two-dimensional model, which describes the propagation of light beams in bulk media combining self-focusing cubic and self-defocusing quintic nonlinearities. Semianalytical predictions for the existence of quasistable necklace structures are obtained on the basis of an effective interaction potential. Then, direct simulations are run. In the case when the initial pattern is far from an equilibrium size predicted by the potential, it cannot maintain its shape. However, a necklace with the initial shape close to the predicted equilibrium survives very long evolution, featuring persistent oscillations. The quasistable evolution is not essentially disturbed by a large noise component added to the initial configuration. Basic conclusions concerning the necklace dynamics in this model are qualitatively the same as in a recently studied one which combines quadratic and self-defocusing cubic nonlinearities. Thus, we infer that a combination of competing self-focusing and self-defocusing nonlinearities enhances the robustness not only of vortex solitons but also of vorticity-carrying necklace patterns.

Stable spatiotemporal spinning solitons in a bimodal cubic-quintic medium

We investigate the formation of stable spatiotemporal three-dimensional (3D) solitons ("light bullets") with internal vorticity ("spin") in a bimodal system described by coupled cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equations. Two relevant versions of the model, for the linear and circular polarizations, are considered. In the former case, an important ingredient of the model are four-wave-mixing terms, which give rise to a phase-sensitive nonlinear coupling between two polarization components. Thresholds for the formation of both spinning and nonspinning 3D solitons are found. Instability growth rates of perturbation eigenmodes with different azimuthal indices are calculated as functions of the solitons' propagation constant. As a result, stability domains in the model's parameter plane are identified for solitons with the values of the spins of their components s=0 and s=1, while all the solitons with s> or =2 are unstable. The solitons with s=1 are stable only if their energy exceeds a certain critical value, so that, in typical cases, the stability region occupies approximately 25% of their existence domain. Direct simulations of the full system produce results that are in perfect agreement with the linear-stability analysis: stable 3D spinning solitons readily self-trap from initial Gaussian pulses with embedded vorticity, and easily heal themselves if strong perturbations are imposed, while unstable spinning solitons quickly split into a set of separating zero-spin fragments whose number is exactly equal to the azimuthal index of the strongest unstable perturbation eigenmode.

Two-dimensional solitons and vortices in normal and anomalous dispersive media

We study solitons and vortices described by the (2+1)-dimensional fourth-order generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation with cubic-quintic nonlinearity. Necessary conditions for the existence of such structures are investigated analytically using conservation laws and asymptotic behavior of localized solutions. We derive the generalized virial relation, which describes the combined influence of linear and nonlinear effects on the evolution of the wave packet envelope. By means of refined variational analysis, we predict the main features of steady soliton solutions, which have been shown to be in good agreement with our numerical results. Soliton and vortex stability is investigated by linear analysis and direct numerical simulations. We show that stable bright solitons exist in nonlinear Kerr media both in anomalous and normal dispersive regimes, even if only the fourth-order dispersive effect is taken into account. Vortices occur robust with respect to symmetry-breaking azimuthal instability only in the presence of additional defocusing quintic nonlinearity in the strongly nonlinear regime. We apply our results to the theoretical explanation of whistler self-induced waveguide propagation in plasmas, and discuss possible applications to light beam propagation in cubic-quintic optical materials and to solitons in two-dimensional molecular systems.

Stable three-dimensional spinning optical solitons supported by competing quadratic and cubic nonlinearities

We show that the quadratic interaction of fundamental and second harmonics in a bulk dispersive medium, combined with self-defocusing cubic nonlinearity, gives rise to completely localized spatiotemporal solitons (vortex tori) with vorticity s=1. There is no threshold necessary for the existence of these solitons. They are found to be stable if their energy exceeds a certain critical value, so that the stability domain occupies about 10% of the existence region of the solitons. On the contrary to spatial vortex solitons in the same model, the spatiotemporal ones with s=2 are never stable. These results might open the way for experimental observation of spinning three-dimensional solitons in optical media.