Self‐Trapping of Optical Beams: Spatial Solitons

AUG 01, 1998

Beams of light, prevented from diverging by nonlinear media, exhibit particle‐like behavior, as do waves in many other nonlinear systems in nature.

DOI: 10.1063/1.882370

Mordechai Segev

George Stegeman

Although people have always been fascinated by visual manifestations of nonlinear wave phenomena, such as tsunamis and tidal waves, the first scientifically documented report of a self‐trapped wave did not come until 1834, when a Scottish scientist, John S. Russell, observed a “rounded smooth and well defined heap of water” propagating in a narrow and shallow canal “without change of form or diminution of speed.” The water was calm on both sides of this unusual wave, and Russell noted that it had the form of a “solitary elevation.”

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More about the Authors

Mordechai Segev. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.

George Stegeman. University of Central Florida, Orlando.