Propagation of solitons in thermal media with periodic nonlinearity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how solitons propagate in layered thermal media with alternating focusing and defocusing nonlinearities, revealing stable soliton formations even near edges and in complex multipole configurations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence and stability of solitons in layered thermal media with periodic nonlinearity, including non-oscillating and multipole solitons near edges.

Findings

Stable bright solitons can form in focusing layers even with an overall defocusing nonlinearity.

Non-oscillating solitons are possible near the sample edges in layered media.

Multipole solitons with more than four spots can be stable in layered thermal media.

Abstract

We address the existence and properties of solitons in layered thermal media made of alternating focusing and defocusing layers. Such structures support robust bright solitons even if the averaged nonlinearity is defocusing. We show that non-oscillating solitons may form in any of the focusing domains, even in those located close to the sample edge, in contrast to uniform thermal media where light beams always oscillate when not launched exactly on the sample center. Stable multipole solitons may include more than four spots in layered media.