Nonlinearity-mediated soliton ejection from trapping potentials in nonlocal media

TL;DR

This paper investigates how thermal nonlinear media with local defects can trap optical solitons, revealing a critical power threshold beyond which solitons are ejected, and demonstrating control over their ejection dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of power-dependent soliton trapping and ejection in nonlocal media with defects, highlighting the role of nonlinearity in soliton dynamics.

Findings

Solitons can be trapped by defects at low powers.

Above a critical power, solitons are ejected from the trap.

The ejection process can be controlled and manipulated.

Abstract

We address the properties of optical solitons in thermal nonlinear media with a local refractive index defect that is capable to trap solitons launched even close to the sample boundary despite the boundary-mediated forces that tend to deflect all beams toward the center of the sample. We show that while such forces become more pronounced with increasing the input beam power the defect can trap only light below a critical power above which solitons are ejected. The dynamics of soliton ejection and the subsequent propagation may be controlled.