# Pearcey solitons in curved nonlinear photonic caustic lattices

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation and control of Pearcey and swallowtail caustic lattices in nonlinear media, enabling applications like waveguiding, beam splitting, and soliton formation at low light intensities.

## Contribution

It introduces the first realization of caustic photonic lattices and explores their use as linear beam splitters and in soliton formation within nonlinear media.

## Key findings

- Successful formation of Pearcey-Y-splitters as linear beam splitters.
- Observation of soliton formation in focusing nonlinear media.
- Potential applications in signal processing, microscopy, and lithography.

## Abstract

Controlling artificial Pearcey and swallowtail beams allows realizing caustic lattices in nonlinear photosensitive media at very low light intensities. We examine their functionality as 2D and 3D waveguiding structures, and show the potential of exploiting these lattices as a linear beam splitter, which we name a Pearcey-Y-splitter. For symmetrized Pearcey beams as auto-focusing beams, the formation of solitons in focusing nonlinearity is observed. Our original approach represents the first realization of caustic photonic lattices and can directly be applied in signal processing, microscopy and material lithography.