Diffusion-Trapped Airy Beams in Photorefractive Media

Shu Jia, Joyce Lee, Jason W. Fleischer, Georgios A. Siviloglou, and Demetrios N. Christodoulides
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 253904 – Published 24 June 2010

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.

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  • Received 9 December 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.253904

©2010 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Shu Jia, Joyce Lee, and Jason W. Fleischer

  • Department of Electrical Engineering and Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544 USA

Georgios A. Siviloglou and Demetrios N. Christodoulides

  • College of Optics/CREOL, University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida, 32816 USA

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Issue

Vol. 104, Iss. 25 — 25 June 2010

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