Scattering of dipole-mode vector solitons: theory and experiment.
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.
Krolikowski
Wieslaw
W
Laser Physics Center, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
McCarthy
Glen
G
Kivshar
Yuri S
YS
Weilnau
Carsten
C
Denz
Cornelia
C
García-Ripoll
Juan J
JJ
Pérez-García
Víctor M
VM