Stabilization of two-dimensional solitons in cubic-saturable nonlinear lattices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that two-dimensional cubic solitons can be stabilized in nonlinear lattices with alternating focusing cubic and saturable domains, overcoming their usual instability, while solitons on saturable domains remain unstable.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nonlinear lattice structure that stabilizes cubic solitons in two dimensions, a significant advancement over previous unstable configurations.

Findings

Cubic solitons can be stabilized in 2D lattices with alternating nonlinearities.

Saturable domain-centered solitons are inherently unstable.

Lattice structure influences soliton stability significantly.

Abstract

We consider soliton dynamics and stability in a nonlinear lattice formed by alternating domains with focusing cubic and saturable nonlinearities. We find that in such lattices solitons centered on cubic domains may be stabilized even in two-dimensional geometries, in spite of their intrinsic catastrophic instability in the absence of the lattice. Solitons centered on saturable domains are always unstable.