Tailoring the profile and interactions of optical localized structures

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2002 Jun;65(6 Pt 2):066204. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.65.066204. Epub 2002 Jun 11.

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the broad tunability of the main features of optical localized structures (LS's) in a nonlinear interferometer. By discussing how a single LS depends on the system spatial frequency bandwidth, we show that a modification of its tail leads to the possibility of tuning the interactions between LS pairs, and thus the equilibrium distances at which LS bound states form. This is in agreement with a general theoretical model describing weak interactions of LS in nonlinear dissipative systems.