Optical vortex solitons: experiment versus theory

We present a brief overview of recent experimental and theoretical results on optical vortex solitons (in particular, those recently obtained at the Australian National University). Special attention is paid to a direct comparison between the experimental data on the structure and motion of vortex solitons created as localized structures in a diffracting Gaussian beam and the theory based on the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We also analyze, for the first time to our knowledge, the effect of strong nonlinearity saturation on the transverse (or snake-type) instability of a dark-soliton stripe and show that saturation leads to a drastic suppression of the instability. © 1997 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(97)00811-4]