Generation of bright solitons in LiNbO_3 and their application as programmable monomode waveguides

摘要

Photorefractive bright solitons have been generated in undoped lithium niobate crystals for the first time. Such solitons have been formed applying a strong static bias field: consequently to this strong bias, the photorefractive screening effect can exceed the photovoltaic one, giving rise to a beam selfocusing and bright solitons. Due to the slow response time of the lithium niobate, both in soliton formation and relaxation, the solitonic channel remains memorized for long time after the writing procedure is switched off. According to this procedure, channel as well as conical waveguides can be created.