Observation of a Gradient Catastrophe Generating Solitons

Journal Article · Fri Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.102.083902· OSTI ID:21180238

Conti, Claudio ^[1]; Fratalocchi, Andrea; Peccianti, Marco ^[1]; Ruocco, Giancarlo ^[1]; Trillo, Stefano ^[1]

---

1. Research Center SOFT INFM-CNR, Universita di Roma 'La Sapienza', P. A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma (Italy)

We investigate the propagation of a dark beam in a defocusing medium in the strong nonlinear regime. We observe for the first time a shock fan filled with noninteracting one-dimensional gray solitons that emanates from a gradient catastrophe developing around a null of the optical intensity. This scenario turns out to be very robust, persisting also when the material nonlocal response averages the nonlinearity over dimensions much larger than the emerging soliton filaments.

• OSTI ID: 21180238
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.083902; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
SOLITONS