Spatial solitons in semiconductor microresonators

We describe experiments showing the existence of spatial solitons in semiconductor microresonators. We describe the manipulation of such solitons in view of technical applications: switching solitons on and off by coherent, as well as incoherent light, reducing the light power necessary to sustain and switch a soliton by optical pumping, and the limit in which independent solitons become so strongly bound that they form a coherent hexagonal pattern, marking the maximum information storage density.