Drift instability and tunneling of lattice solitons.
We derive an analytic formula for the lateral dynamics of solitons in a general inhomogeneous nonlinear media, and show that it can be valid over tens of diffraction lengths. In particular, we show that solitons centered at a lattice maximum can be "mathematically unstable" but "physically stable." We also derive an analytic upper bound for the critical velocity for tunneling, which is valid even when the standard Peierls-Nabarro potential approach fails.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Y
Y
Sivan
G
G
Fibich
B
B
Ilan