Abstract

Reflection and refraction of spatial solitons at dielectric interfaces, accommodating arbitrarily angles of incidence, is studied. Analysis is based on Helmholtz soliton theory, which eliminates the angular restriction associated with the paraxial approximation. A novel generalization of Snell’s law is discovered that is valid for collimated light beams and the entire angular domain. Our new theoretical predictions are shown to be in excellent agreement with full numerical simulations. New qualitative features of soliton refraction and limitations of previous paraxial analyses are highlighted.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Giant Goos–Hänchen shifts and radiation-induced trapping of Helmholtz solitons at nonlinear interfaces

Julio Sánchez-Curto, Pedro Chamorro-Posada, and Graham S. McDonald
Opt. Lett. 36(18) 3605-3607 (2011)

Dark solitons at nonlinear interfaces

Julio Sánchez-Curto, Pedro Chamorro-Posada, and Graham S. McDonald
Opt. Lett. 35(9) 1347-1349 (2010)

Nonlinear shift of spatial solitons at a graded dielectric interface

Marco Peccianti, Gaetano Assanto, Andriy Dyadyusha, and Malgosia Kaczmarek
Opt. Lett. 32(3) 271-273 (2007)

Helmholtz dark solitons

P. Chamorro-Posada and G. S. McDonald
Opt. Lett. 28(10) 825-827 (2003)

Vector soliton fission by reflection at nonlinear interfaces

Fangwei Ye, Yaroslav V. Kartashov, and Lluis Torner
Opt. Lett. 32(4) 394-396 (2007)