Dipole and Quadrupole Solitons in Optically Induced Two-Dimensional Photonic Lattices: Theory and Experiment

Dipole and quadrupole solitons in a two-dimensional photorefractive optical lattice are investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown theoretically that out-of-phase dipole solitons and quadrupole solitons exist and are linearly stable in the intermediate-intensity regime. In-phase dipole and quadrupole solitons, however, are always linearly unstable, but their instabilities are rather weak in the low-intensity regime. Experimentally, both types of dipole solitons are observed, and the experimental results agree qualitatively with the theoretical predictions. In addition, we have observed the anisotropic effect of the photorefractive crystal in the dipole-soliton formation.