Pearcey solitons in curved nonlinear photonic caustic lattices

Abstract

Controlling artificial Pearcey and swallowtail beams allows the realization of caustic lattices in nonlinear photosensitive media at very low light intensities. We examine their functionality as 2D and 3D waveguiding structures and show the potential of exploiting these lattices as linear beam splitters, which we name a ‘Pearcey-Y-splitter’. For symmetrized Pearcey beams as auto-focusing beams, the formation of solitons in focusing nonlinearity is observed. Our original approach represents the first realization of caustic photonic lattices and can directly be applied in signal processing, microscopy and material lithography.