Optically induced photovoltaic self-defocusing-to-self-focusing transition

Abstract

We show theoretically and experimentally that the photovoltaic nonlinearity that gives rise to spatial solitons can be switched from self-defocusing to self-focusing (or vice versa) by use of background illumination. This raises the possibility of bright photovoltaic solitons in ${\mathrm{LiNbO}}_3$.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

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