Spatial optical solitons are generally studied experimentally in saturating nonlinear optical materials. Saturation has a profound influence on the properties of the solitons allowing, for example, the creation of (2+l)D bright solitons which do not exist in non-saturating materials. This allows the observation of a wide number of novel interaction processes that are potentially of practical importance, such as soliton fusion, or splitting. Because the generalised nonlinear Schroedinger equation appropriate for a saturating medium is generally non-integrable, the "solitons" of such media do not correspond to the conventional definition that requires them to be solutions of integral propagation equations. As a result soliton collisions will generally be inelastic and the solitons can display complex behaviour such as internal oscillations. Such properties are often very interesting when practical applications are taken into account particularly the notion of guiding light by light.
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