We present the first experimental observation of (2+1) -dimensional multimode (composite) solitons. A single-hump component and a double-hump (dipole-type) component are jointly self-trapped as a composite soliton in a biased photorefractive crystal.

We report the observation of incoherent collisions between two-dimensional bright photorefractive screening solitons. The solitons remain intact and do not exchange energy whenever the collision angle exceeds thecritical angle for guidance in the waveguide that each soliton induces, which is, in turn, fully controlled by the soliton parameters. When the collision angle is much smaller than the ...

We analyze the transverse instability of two-component spatial solitons in a saturable nonlinear medium, in relation to recent experimental observations of spatial vector solitons in photorefractive media. We present the stability analysis for all three realizations: dark-bright, bright-bright, and dark-dark soliton pairs, and demonstrate that both the nonlinearity saturation and incoherent mod...

The combination of charge separation induced by the formation of a single photorefractive screening soliton and an applied external bias field in a paraelectric is shown to lead to a family of useful electro-optic guiding patterns and properties.

We demonstrate self-trapping of one-dimensional and two-dimensional optical beams in a photorefractive KNbO(3) crystal. We study the waveguides induced by the self-trapped beams for prospective applications of tunable nonlinear frequency conversion in soliton-induced waveguides.

We have found a new class of exact solutions for multicomponent partially coherent solitons in photorefractive media with a drift mechanism of nonlinear response. Their novel feature is that the composite M-component sech-shaped soliton is located on a constant-background plane wave. The solutions are characterized by two free parameters and these are related to the maximum intensity of the com...

We investigate multi-hump spatial solitary waves and multi-soliton patterns generated by an incoherent interaction of two optical beams in a medium with saturable (e.g. photorefractive) nonlinearity. Applying a bifurcation analysis and numerical relaxation technique, we reveal different scenarios of creating the multi-hump solitons and find the families of solitary waves composed of two mutuall...

Optical waveguides can be conveniently written in photorefractive materials by using spatial solitons. We have generated bright spatial solitons inside lithium niobate which allow single-mode light propagation. Efficient waveguides have been generated with CW light powers as high as few microwatts. According to the soliton formation, waveguides can be formed with different shapes. Due to the sl...

Collision between solitons is perhaps the most fascinating feature of soliton phenomena, because the interacting self-trapped wave packets exhibit many particlelike features. Over the years, soliton collisions have been extensively studied theoretically and experimentally, in Kerr and saturable nonlinear media, revealing a variety of effects. Among these are elastic and inelastic collisions, fu...

We provide a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of incoherently coupled photorefractive spatial-soliton pairs in all three possible realizations: bright–bright, dark–dark, and dark–bright. We also show that when the total intensity of two coupled solitons is much lower than the effective dark irradiance, the coupled soliton pair is reduced to Manakov solitons. In all cases, mutual...