title: Dynamic instability of self-induced bidirectional waveguides in photorefractive media.
abstract: We report on the experimental observation of a dynamic instability in the interaction of counterpropagating self-trapped beams in a photorefractive strontium barium niobate crystal. While the interaction of copropagating spatial optical solitons exhibits only transient dynamics, resulting in a final steady state, the counterpropagating geometry supports a dynamic instability mediated by intrinsic feedback. Experimental observations are compared with and found to be in qualitative agreement with numerical simulations.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Corrensstrasse 2, D-48149 Münster, Germany. phj@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jander
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Denz
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petrović
authors.forename: Milivoj R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Belić
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003238:Connective Tissue / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007368:Interferometry / Q000379:methods*; D008027:Light; D008954:Models, Biological; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity