Abstract

We present an overview of the experimental and theoretical understanding of spatial solitons in photorefractive materials. There are three generic types at present: quasi-steady-state, screening and photovoltaic solitons. The quasi-steady-state solutions (predicted and discovered first) exist during the slow screening process of an externally applied field in bright and dark realisations and in one and two transverse dimensions. [1-5] The screening solitons were predicted and recently observed [6-11] in a photorefractive material (SBN) with an externally applied field at steady state, when the field is nonuniformly screened. The photovoltaic solitons were predicted and observed [12,13] in photorefractive materials with a strong photovoltaic current (eg LiNbO₃) and use the refractive index perturbation associated with the photovoltaic field

© 1996 Optical Society of America