Abstract

Spatial solitons have been the subject of intense research activities during the past decade. Solitons are self-guided beams that counterbalance natural diffraction thanks to a non-linear optical effect. In a photorefractive (PR) medium, they can give rise to single mode memorized waveguides. To this end LiNbO₃ is an appealing material which presents a defocusing PR effect suitable to form 1-D dark photovoltaic solitons and vortex (2-D) solitons [1] without use of an external applied field. Soliton-induced complex guiding structures such Y or 1 by N junctions [2] have been previously demonstrated but only in 1-D configuration which limits interests for applications. In our work we present numerical calculations along with experiments showing the formation dynamics of 2-D interacting coherent PR vortex solitons in LiNbO₃ Fe.

© 2007 IEEE