Generation and control of photorefractive soliton lattices

This study extends the experimental creation of arrays of parallel propagating solitons as first demonstrated previously to larger lattices and investigates potential control and waveguiding features. The dependence of mutual interaction on the separation of adjacent channels is studied in order to show the potential of these solitonic lattices for applications in telecommunications. This work also demonstrates waveguiding using red (/spl lambda/ = 633 nm) and infrared light ( /spl lambda/ = 1.55 /spl mu/m). In the latter case, a spatially resolved infrared-to-visible light converter using a gas discharge system is used. Moreover, this study shows induced control of solitons in these large lattices using coherent and incoherent steering beams.