Temporal behavior of bright and dark spatial solitons in photorefractive crystals having both the linear and quadratic electro-optic effects based on low amplitude approximations

Abstract

We investigate the formation or time evolution characteristics of bright and dark optical spatial solitons in novel photorefractive media with linear and quadratic electro-optic effects. This study was carried out at low amplitude. By the application of low amplitude approximation to the time-dependent wave (soliton) propagation equation, bright soliton solution (BSS) and dark soliton solution (DSS) were each obtained analytically, and both are exact solutions. The change in soliton width or the intensity full width at half maximum (FWHM) of two soliton types can also be calculated directly from the BSS and the DSS, providing a suitable description of the bright and dark solitons time evolution in novel photorefractive media. Only steady state solitons are formed in low amplitude, and the quasi-steady state soliton does not exist as reported at high saturation values. We compare analytical BSS with numerical calculation results of previous studies and find good agreement between analytics and numerics on the amplitude limit. In contrast to bright solitons, which can arise in the dominant linear or quadratic electro-optic effect, dark solitons in novel photorefractive media always exist under the dominant quadratic electro-optic effects only. We found that the time evolution of dark solitons from the DSS corresponds with time-independent optical spatial solitons studies in a similar media. Lastly, BSS and DSS found at low amplitude limits are fundamental soliton solutions or initial state soliton (at low peak intensity ratio regime) that can play an important role in further investigations of optical spatial solitons formation in novel photorefractive media.