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Spatial Solitons in Saturating Nonlinear Optical Materials

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Soliton-driven Photonics

Part of the book series: NATO Science Series ((NAII,volume 31))

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Abstract

There has been a lot of interest recently in the study of self-guided optical beams, also known as optical spatial solitons, which propagate in nonlinear optical media in conditions where the natural tendency of the beam to diffract is exactly compensated by the optical nonlinearity [1, 2]. As a consequence the beam profile is invariant in the propagation direction — a property shared with the modes of a fabricated optical waveguide and one which gives rise to the notion of self-guidance. One of the nonlinearities most studied that supports the creation of spatial solitons is the so-called Kerr nonlinearity where the refractive index of the material is linearly dependent on the local intensity of the light beam. A Gaussian laser beam, for example, propagating in a Kerr material would induce an increase in the material’s refractive index on-axis relative to off-axis regions [2]. This creates a focusing action in the medium that provides the basic condition for compensating diffraction.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Photonic Cooperative Research Centre Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, ACT 0200, Canberra, Australia

    Barry Luther-Davies

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  1. Barry Luther-Davies
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Joule Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Salford, Salford, UK

    A. D. Boardman

  2. Radiophysics Department, Physics Faculty, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    A. P. Sukhorukov

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Luther-Davies, B. (2001). Spatial Solitons in Saturating Nonlinear Optical Materials. In: Boardman, A.D., Sukhorukov, A.P. (eds) Soliton-driven Photonics. NATO Science Series, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0682-8_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0682-8_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7131-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0682-8

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