title: Diffusion-trapped Airy beams in photorefractive media.
abstract: We report the first experimental observation of self-trapped Airy beams in a nonlinear medium. As opposed to screening or photovoltaic spatial solitons, this new class of self-localized beams owes its existence to carrier diffusion effects. The asymmetric action of two-wave mixing supports the asymmetric intensity profile of the Airy states, with a balance that is independent of the beam intensity (unlike solitons). Further, the self-trapped wave packets self-bend during propagation at an acceleration rate that is independent of the thermal energy associated with the diffusive nonlinearity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jason W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Fleischer
authors.forename: Georgios A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Siviloglou
authors.forename: Demetrios N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Christodoulides