title: Solitons in nonlinear media with an infinite range of nonlocality: first observation of coherent elliptic solitons and of vortex-ring solitons.
abstract: We present an experimental study on wave propagation in highly nonlocal optically nonlinear media, for which far-away boundary conditions significantly affect the evolution of localized beams. As an example, we set the boundary conditions to be anisotropic and demonstrate the first experimental observation of coherent elliptic solitons. Furthermore, exploiting the natural ability of such nonlinearities to eliminate azimuthal instabilities, we perform the first observation of stable vortex-ring solitons. These features of highly nonlocal nonlinearities affected by far-away boundary conditions open new directions in nonlinear science by facilitating remote control over soliton propagation.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department and Solid State Institute, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rotschild
authors.forename: Oren
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Manela
authors.forename: Mordechai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Segev
authors.forename: Tal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Carmon