title: Formation and control of localized structures in nonlinear optical systems.
abstract: Diffractive effects in passive nonlinear optical resonators can lead to pattern-forming instabilities. When the pattern (in our case, a regular hexagonal lattice of intensity peaks) coexists with the homogeneous solution, soliton-like intensity peaks in the transverse plane can be excited. These solutions have the characteristics of localized structures and are highly degenerate with respect to the peak location. By injecting narrow laser pulses, it is possible to turn on such peaks at desired locations and to turn them off selectively. The conditions to ensure independence among the peaks are described as well. These features suggest the possibility of encoding optical information in the structure of the field profile. (c) 1996 American Institute of Physics.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale Fisica della Materia and Department of Physics, Politecnico di Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari 70126, ItalyIstituto Nazionale Fisica della Materia and Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universita di Milano, Via Celoria 16, Milano 20133, Italy.
authors.forename: M.
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brambilla
authors.forename: L. A.
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Lugiato
authors.forename: M.
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stefani