title: Cavity solitons in two-level lasers with dense amplifying medium.
abstract: Local-field effects are known to induce bistability in dense optical media. We examine theoretically whether this property is preserved in broad-area cavities, and show that bistability between the homogeneous lasing and nonlasing states of the system persists provided a Fourier filtering technique is used to prevent off-axis emission. The resulting bistability gives rise to spatial light localization in the form of cavity solitons, which exhibit a particularly large degree of plasticity as a function of the characteristics of the addressing beam. This is the simplest laser able to sustain cavity solitons.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ahufinger
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: García-Ojalvo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mompart
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Torrent
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corbalán
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vilaseca