Abstract

A variational method is used to investigate temporal effects that are experimentally observed in the propagation of spatial solitons in planar systems. These effects appear when the laser beam used to reach the soliton propagation regime is pulsed. In the absence of dispersion, the three-dimensional equation of propagation, including two space and one time variable, becomes a two-dimensional spatial equation. Time is included as a parameter that determines the initial value problem. The main effect derived is a temporal modulation on the spatial width of the soliton. This modulation depends crucially on the temporal envelope shape. The interest of these results is concerned with the potential use of spatial solitons for making gradient-index systems with a controllable index profile.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

Gaussian beam to spatial soliton formation in Kerr media

D. Burak and W. Nasalski
Appl. Opt. 33(27) 6393-6401 (1994)

Spatial optical solitons in planar glass waveguides

J. S. Aitchison, Y. Silberberg, A. M. Weiner, D. E. Leaird, M. K. Oliver, J. L. Jackel, E. M. Vogel, and P. W. E. Smith
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8(6) 1290-1297 (1991)

Optimization of optical beam steering in nonlinear Kerr media by spatial phase modulation

X. D. Cao, D. D. Meyerhofer, and G. P. Agrawal
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(11) 2224-2231 (1994)

Propagation of optical pulses with spatial and temporal dependence

Arvind S. Marathay
Appl. Opt. 33(14) 3139-3145 (1994)

Generation of a periodic array of dark spatial solitons in the regime of effective amplification

Pavel V. Mamyshev, Christian Bosshard, and George I. Stegeman
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(7) 1254-1260 (1994)