Counterpropagating optical beams and solitons

TL;DR

This paper reviews the physics, models, and recent experimental findings related to counterpropagating optical beams and solitons, highlighting their interactions, instabilities, and various complex structures in different media.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of models, experimental results, and generalizations of counterpropagating beams and solitons in nonlinear optical media.

Findings

Counterpropagating beams induce focusing via interference.

Interactions are insensitive to relative phase.

Experimental observations confirm theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Physics of counterpropagating optical beams and spatial optical solitons is reviewed, including the formation of stationary states and spatiotemporal instabilities. First, several models describing the evolution and interactions between optical beams and spatial solitons are discussed, that propagate in opposite directions in nonlinear media. It is shown that coherent collisions between counterpropagating beams give rise to an interesting focusing mechanism resulting from the interference between the beams, and that interactions between such beams are insensitive to the relative phase between them. Second, recent experimental observations of the counterpropagation effects and instabilities in waveguides and bulk geometries, as well as in one- and two-dimensional photonic lattices, are discussed. A variety of different generalizations of this concept are summarized, including the counterpropagating beams of complex structures, such as multipole beams and optical vortices, as well as the beams in different media, such as photorefractive materials and liquid crystals.