Self-organization of light in optical media with competing nonlinearities

Abstract

We study the propagation of light beams through optical media with competing nonlocal nonlinearities. We demonstrate that the nonlocality of competing focusing and defocusing nonlinearities gives rise to self-organization and stationary states with stable hexagonal intensity patterns, akin to transverse crystals of light filaments. Signatures of this long-range ordering are shown to be observable in the propagation of light in optical waveguides and even in free space. We consider a specific form of the nonlinear response that arises in atomic vapor upon proper light coupling. Yet, the general phenomenon of self-organization is a generic consequence of competing nonlocal nonlinearities, and may, hence, also be observed in other settings.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum phase transition in a two-dimensional system of dipoles
• Shocks in nonlocal media
• Why do ultrasoft repulsive particles cluster and crystallize? Analytical results from density functional theory
• Nonlocal stabilization of nonlinear beams in a self-focusing atomic vapor
• Observation of a gradient catastrophe generating solitons
• On localized vegetation patterns, fairy circles and localized patches in arid landscapes
• Laser beam filamentation in fractal aggregates

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Supersolidity around a critical point in dipolar Bose Einstein condensates
• Two-Dimensional Supersolid Formation in Dipolar Condensates
• Pattern Formation in Quantum Ferrofluids: from Supersolids to Superglasses
• Creating Complex Optical Longitudinal Polarization Structures
• Super-mode spatial optical solitons in liquid crystals with competing nonlinearities
• Spatial solitons in thermo-optical media from the nonlinear Schrodinger-Poisson equation and dark matter analogues
• Nonlinear continuous-wave optical propagation in nematic liquid crystals: interplay between reorientational and thermal effects
• Self-bound droplet clusters in laser-driven Bose-Einstein condensates
• Self-organized structures of two-component laser fields and their active controls in a cold Rydberg atomic gas
• Dissipation-enhanced collapse singularity of a nonlocal fluid of light in a hot atomic vapor
• Phonon and Shifton from a Real Modulated Scalar
• Structural Phase Transitions of Optical Patterns in Atomic Gases with Microwave Controlled Rydberg Interactions
• Dynamics of vortex-antivortex pairs and rarefaction pulses in liquid light
• Pressureless stationary solutions in a Newton-Yukawa gravity model
• Small-amplitude nonlinear modes under the combined effect of the parabolic potential, nonlocality and $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry
• Exploring Bifurcations in Bose-Einstein Condensates via Phase Field Crystal Models
• Aberration-driven tilted emission in degenerate cavities
• Paraxial fluids of light
• Static and dynamic properties of self-bound droplets of light in hot vapours
• Photonic Nambu-Goldstone bosons