Cavity solitons in two-level lasers with dense amplifying medium.
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.
Ahufinger
V
V
Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
García-Ojalvo
J
J
Mompart
J
J
Torrent
M C
MC
Corbalán
R
R
Vilaseca
R
R