Diffusion-Trapped Airy Beams in Photorefractive Media

    Authors

    S. Jia; J. Lee; J. W. Fleischer; G. A. Siviloglou;D. N. Christodoulides

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Phys. Rev. Lett.

    Keywords

    SPATIAL SOLITONS; STEADY-STATE; CRYSTALS; GENERATION; DARK; Physics, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    We report the first experimental observation of self-trapped Airy beams in a nonlinear medium. As opposed to screening or photovoltaic spatial solitons, this new class of self-localized beams owes its existence to carrier diffusion effects. The asymmetric action of two-wave mixing supports the asymmetric intensity profile of the Airy states, with a balance that is independent of the beam intensity (unlike solitons). Further, the self-trapped wave packets self-bend during propagation at an acceleration rate that is independent of the thermal energy associated with the diffusive nonlinearity.

    Journal Title

    Physical Review Letters

    Volume

    104

    Issue/Number

    25

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    4

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000279176700001

    ISSN

    0031-9007

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