SELF-DEFLECTION OF STEADY-STATE BRIGHT SPATIAL SOLITONS IN BIASED PHOTOREFRACTIVE CRYSTALS

The self-bending process of steady-state bright spatial solitons in biased photorefractive media is investigated by taking into account diffusion effects. By integrating numerically the nonlinear propagation equation, it is found that the soliton beam evolution is approximately adiabatic. The self-deflection process is further studied using perturbation analysis, which predicts that the center of the optical beam moves on a parabolic trajectory and, moreover, that the central spatial frequency component shifts linearly with the propagation distance. Relevant examples are provided.