EFFECTS OF FINITE TEMPORAL DURATION ON SPATIAL SOLITONS IN A PLANAR OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDE

The effects of finite temporal duration on the spatial solitons in a planar optical waveguide are analyzed. The results show that (i) the self-trapped pulses with finite temporal duration are unstable and collapse at higher peak power in a planar optical waveguide with the anomalous group velocity dispersion (GVD), but the collapse does not occur in a planar optical waveguide with the normal GVD; (ii) the spatial soliton with finite temporal duration has a transverse velocity which is proportional to the spatial width and inversely proportional to the temporal duration of the soliton, and the bright spatiotemporal solitons do not form multiple soliton bound states; and (iii) the peak power required for self-trapping of the pulse in a planar optical waveguide with the normal GVD is less than the critical peak power for collapse of the pulses in a planar optical waveguide with the anomalous GVD. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.