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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 34: Poster

DY 34.38: Poster

Monday, March 7, 2005, 15:30–18:00, Poster TU D

Length scales of vectorial solitons and hexagonal patterns in a single-mirror feedback arrangement — •Jens-Uwe Schurek, Matthias Pesch, Thorsten Ackemann, and Wulfhard Lange — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149 Münster

In this report, we consider dissipative vectorial spatial solitons in a simple nonlinear optical system that uses sodium vapor as the nonlinear medium. For low input powers, we observe a symmetry-breaking pitchfork bifurcation between two homogeneous states of different polarization of the transmitted light field. At higher powers, each of these states becomes unstable against a modulational instability leading to a hexagonal pattern with small amplitude.

In this parameter region we observe four types of high-amplitude spatial solitons that differ from each other in size and in the number of radial oscillations. We show that the spatial frequency of these oscillations is connected to the underlying modulational instability though the solitons cannot be interpreted as a constituent of the pattern. The influence of the modulational instability on the distances between simultaneously existing solitons is discussed.