Abstract

Dark spatial optical solitons arising from balancing of self-defocusing effects and diffraction effects are of current interest¹ because of potential applications such as optical switching, optical limiting, optical interconnection, and optical waveguides.² Theoretical analysis shows that there is a phase jump in the central of the dark solution.³ In our experiments, a glass platelet is placed in the half of the beam profile of a Ar⁺ laser with intensity about 50 mw to form a phase jump. The beam is focused by a cylindrical lens, then passes through a liquid cell contained C₆₀-toluene solution and becomes a narrow dark strip with a bright background, which is a black spatial soliton with width of 57

© 1996 Optical Society of America