Dynamics of incoherent bright and dark self-trapped beams and their coherence properties in photorefractive crystals

Using the coherent density approach, we study the propagation dynamics of incoherent bright and dark beams in biased photorefractive crystals. We show that, under appropriate initial conditions, bright as well as darklike incoherent quasi-solitons can be established in this material system. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that the coherence properties of these beams can be significantly affected by the self-trapping process. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.