title: Scattering of dipole-mode vector solitons: theory and experiment.
abstract: We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the scattering properties of optical dipole-mode vector solitons-radially asymmetric composite self-trapped optical beams. First, we analyze the soliton collisions in an isotropic two-component model with a saturable nonlinearity, and demonstrate that in many cases the scattering dynamics of the dipole-mode solitons allows us to classify them as "molecules of light"-extremely robust spatially localized objects which survive a wide range of interactions and display many properties of composite states with a rotational degree of freedom. Next, we study the composite solitons in an anisotropic nonlinear model that describes photorefractive nonlinearities, and also present a number of experimental verifications of our analysis.
authors.affiliation: Laser Physics Center, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Wieslaw
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Krolikowski
authors.forename: Glen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.forename: Yuri S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kivshar
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weilnau
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Denz
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: García-Ripoll
authors.forename: Víctor M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Pérez-García