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The existence and properties of spatial solitons in laser-type and wavemixing-type resonators were studied experimentally.
We observe writeable/erasable, moveable, moving, and "self-replicating" solitons. Solitons can interact in velocity space and have quantized velocities. Large numbers of solitons can coexist as required for optical information processing.
Appropriate for applications are spatial solitons in semiconductor microcavities. We show the existence of bright and dark solitons,and their ( coherent and incoherent ) switching. The sustaining powers for such solitons can be reduced to the microwatt range, favourable for technical systems,using population inversion ( created by optical pumping ). Hexagonal space-filling patterns desintegrate,with increasing nonlinearity, into arrangements of loosely bound solitons. This formation of "building blocks" out of rigid patterns results in a high degree of spatial multistability. It illustrates how nonlinearity makes a system " autonomous ", i.e. allows it to,independently from boundaries or spatial parameter distributions, choose its spatial structures. Brain-like processing schemes suggest themselves. |
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