Optical waveguiding by
necklace and azimuthon beams in nonlinear media
L. Stoyanov, N. Dimitrov,
I. Stefanov, D. N. Neshev, and
A. Dreischuh
Abstract.
Nonlinear necklace and azimuthon beams were experimentally generated in a self-focusing bulk photorefractive nonlinear medium (crystal SBN:60) using a frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 laser at 532 nm. The parallel optical waveguides induced by such a beam were probed by near-infrared signal beams emitted by a Ti:Sapphire laser. The quality and time stability of the guided sub-beams at the exit of the crystal were investigated. In view of the waveguides’ ordering along a ring, the best matching probe beams were found to be singly or doubly charged optical vortex bright rings. The results indicate the feasibility of parallel all-optical guiding of optical signals at wavelengths, for which the nonlinear medium is not photosensitive.
OCIS codes: (050.4865) Optical vortices; (090.1760) Computer holography; (190.4420) Nonlinear optics, transverse effects in; (190.5330) Photorefractive optics; (190.5940) Self-action effects; (230.1150) All-optical devices.