Molding and stretched evolution of optical solitons in cumulative nonlinearities

Numerical method for an analysis of nonlinear light propagation in photorefractive media--time nonlocal approach

Nonlinear light propagation in photorefractive media can be analyzed by numerical methods. The presented numerical approach has regard to the effects of time nonlocality. Two algorithms are presented, and compared in terms of physical results and computing times. The possibility to address the issue of time nonlocality in two ways is attributed to the fact that, it is possible to completely separate carrier dynamics evaluation and wave equation calculation. This in turn, allows to choose a short integration time for carrier dynamics and a longer one to solve the wave equation. The tests of the methods were carried out for a one-carrier model that describes most of photorefractive media, and for a model with bipolar transport and hot electron effect, used in descriptions of semiconductor materials.

Self-bending of light in photorefractive semiconductors with hot-electron effect

This article analyzes nonlinear light propagation in semiconductors with bipolar conductivity and nonlinear transport of electrons. We show how the competition between electron and hole conductivity can influence light propagation, leading to the self-bending effect of optical beam trajectory, which depending on the value of trap compensation coefficient may be stationary or transient.

Aging solitons in photorefractive dipolar glasses

We study experimentally the aging of optical spatial solitons in a dipolar glass hosted by a nanodisordered sample of photorefractive potassium-sodium-tantalate-niobate (KNTN). As the system ages, the waves erratically explore varying strengths of the nonlinear response, causing them to break up and scatter. We show that this process can still lead to solitons, but in a generalized form for which the changing response is compensated by changing the normalized wave size and intensity so as to maintain fixed the optical waveform.

Optical supercavitation in soft matter

We investigate theoretically, numerically, and experimentally nonlinear optical waves in an absorbing out-of-equilibrium colloidal material at the gelification transition. At a sufficiently high optical intensity, absorption is frustrated and light propagates into the medium. The process is mediated by the formation of a matter-shock wave due to optically induced thermodiffusion and largely resembles the mechanism of hydrodynamical supercavitation, as it is accompanied by a dynamic phase-transition region between the beam and the absorbing material.

Role of charge saturation in photorefractive dynamics of micron-sized beams and departure from soliton behavior

Experimental and theoretical results indicate that miniaturized micron-sized nonlinear beam phenomenology in photorefractives leads to a regime qualitatively distinct from solitonlike propagation on consequence of the specific role of space-charge saturation. In the highly modulated conditions typical of beams, this contribution amounts to an effective electron self-action.