POLARIZATION INSTABILITY, MULTISTABILITY AND TRANSVERSE LOCALIZED STRUCTURES IN KERR MEDIA

The role of transverse effects in the polarization dynamics of light beams propagating in Kerr materials is investigated. We show the existence of a novel class of vector-dark solitary waves in these materials in both two- and three-dimensional geometries. These solitary waves consist of localized structures separating domains of different polarization eigenstates of the Kerr medium. The stability of these new nonlinear waves and the dynamics of related structures is investigated by numerical simulations.