Local-field effects are known to induce bistability in dense optical media. We examine theoretically whether this property is preserved in broad-area cavities, and show that bistability between the homogeneous lasing and nonlasing states of the system persists provided a Fourier filtering technique is used to prevent off-axis emission. The resulting bistability gives rise to spatial light localization in the form of cavity solitons, which exhibit a particularly large degree of plasticity as a function of the characteristics of the addressing beam. This is the simplest laser able to sustain cavity solitons.
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