skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Bistable dark solitons of a cubic-quintic Helmholtz equation

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
; ;  [1]
  1. Joule Physics Laboratory, School of Computing, Science and Engineering, Materials and Physics Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT (United Kingdom)

We provide a report on exact analytical bistable dark spatial solitons of a nonlinear Helmholtz equation with a cubic-quintic refractive-index model. Our analysis begins with an investigation of the modulational instability characteristics of Helmholtz plane waves. We then derive a dark soliton by mapping the desired asymptotic form onto a uniform background field and obtain a more general solution by deploying rotational invariance laws in the laboratory frame. The geometry of the new soliton is explored in detail, and a range of new physical predictions is uncovered. Particular attention is paid to the unified phenomena of arbitrary-angle off-axis propagation and nondegenerate bistability. Crucially, the corresponding solution of paraxial theory emerges in a simultaneous multiple limit. We conclude with a set of computer simulations that examine the role of Helmholtz dark solitons as robust attractors.

OSTI ID:
21408913
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 81, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.81.053831; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English