We report on the existence of various periodic transverse patterns and stable localized structures in the optical field of a planar resonator, which exhibits the defocusing saturable nonlinearity of a semiconductor near the band edge. We predict multistability of all feasible patterns as well as of the localized states. Being equal as well as different, stable localized states can organize as clusters or new kinds of periodic patterns (superlattices). The interaction of localized states via their oscillating tails allows the formation of patterns with the same basic units but with different lattice spacing.

• Received 14 February 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.56.R3366