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Carsten Weilnau

Publications and source records attributed to Carsten Weilnau.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Scattering of dipole-mode vector solitons: Theory and experiment

We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the scattering properties of optical dipole-mode vector solitons - radially asymmetric composite self-trapped optical beams. First, we analyze the soliton collisions in an isotropic two-component model with a saturable nonlinearity and demonstrate that in many cases the scattering dynamics of the dipole-mode solitons allows us to classify them as ``molecules of light'' - extremely robust spatially localized objects which survive a wide range of interactions and display many properties of composite states with a rotational degree of freedom. Next, we study the composite solitons in an anisotropic nonlinear model that describes photorefractive nonlinearities, and also present a number of experimental verifications of our analysis.

nlin.PS

Multicomponent dipole-mode spatial solitons

We study (2+1)-dimensional multicomponent spatial vector solitons with a nontrivial topological structure of their constituents, and demonstrate that these solitary waves exhibit a symmetry-breaking instability provided their total topological charge is nonzero. We describe a novel type of stable multicomponent dipole-mode solitons with intriguing swinging dynamics.

nlin.PS

Observation of dipole-mode vector solitons

We report on the first experimental observation of a novel type of optical vector soliton, a {\em dipole-mode soliton}, recently predicted theoretically. We show that these vector solitons can be generated in a photorefractive medium employing two different processes: a phase imprinting, and a symmetry-breaking instability of a vortex-mode vector soliton. The experimental results display remarkable agreement with the theory, and confirm the robust nature of these radially asymmetric two-component solitary waves.

nlin.PS