Quadratic solitary waves in a counterpropagating quasi-phase-matched configuration

Starting from the Maxwell's equations and without resort to the paraxial approximation, we derive equations describing stationary (1+1)-dimensional beams propagating at an arbitrary direction in an optical crystal with cubic symmetry and purely quadratic nonlinearity. The equations are derived separately for beams with the TE and TM polarizations. In both cases, they contain and cubic nonlinear terms, the latter ones generated via the cascading mechanism. The final TE equatio...

We demonstrate an important role of the process of optical rectification in the theory of nonlinear wave propagation in quadratically nonlinear [or $\chi^{(2)}$ ] periodic optical media. We derive a novel physical model for gap solitons in $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinear Bragg gratings.

In this work, we introduce a method for stabilizing spatiotemporal solitons. These solitons correspond to light bullets in multimode optical fiber lasers, energy-scalable waveguide oscillators and amplifiers, localized coherent patterns in Bose-Einstein condensates, etc. We show that a three-dimensional confinement potential, formed by a spatial transverse (radial) parabolic graded refractive index and dissipation profile, combined with quadratic temporal phase modulation, ma...

Both the group velocity and phase velocity of two solitons can be synchronized by a Kerr-effect mediated interaction, causing what is known as soliton trapping. Trapping can occur when solitons travel through single-pass optical fibers or when circulating in optical resonators. Here, we demonstrate and theoretically explain a new manifestation of soliton trapping that occurs between counter-propagating solitons in microresonators. When counter-pumping a microresonator using s...

We discuss several novel types of multi-component (temporal and spatial) envelope solitary waves that appear in fiber and waveguide nonlinear optics. In particular, we describe multi-channel solitary waves in bit-parallel-wavelength fiber transmission systems for high performance computer networks, multi-colour parametric spatial solitary waves due to cascaded nonlinearities of quadratic materials, and quasiperiodic envelope solitons due to quasi-phase-matching in Fibonacci o...

Optical rogue waves have been extensively studied in the past two decades. However, observations of multidimensional extreme wave events remain surprisingly scarce. In this work we present the experimental demonstration of the spontaneous generation of spatially localized two-dimensional beams in a quadratic nonlinear crystal, which are composed by twin components at the fundamental and the second-harmonic frequencies. These localized spots of light emerge from a wide backgro...

We predict the existence of spatial-spectral vortex solitons in one-dimensional periodic waveguide arrays with quadratic nonlinear response. In such vortices the energy flow forms a closed loop through the simultaneous effects of phase gradients at the fundamental frequency and second-harmonic fields, and the parametric frequency conversion between the spectral components. The linear stability analysis shows that such modes are stable in a broad parameter region.

We introduce the concept of two-color multistep cascading for vectorial parametric wave mixing in optical media with quadratic (second-order or chi-2) nonlinear response. We demonstrate that the multistep cascading allows light-guiding-light effects with quadratic spatial solitons. With the help of the so-called `almost exact' analytical solutions, we describe the properties of parametric waveguides created by two-wave quadratic solitons.

We theoretically investigate the dynamics, bifurcation structure and stability of localized states in Kerr cavities driven at the pure fourth-order dispersion point. Both the normal and anomalous group velocity dispersion regimes are analysed, highlighting the main differences with the standard second order dispersion case. In the anomalous regime, single and multi-peak localised states exist and are stable over a much wider region of the parameter space. In the normal disper...

By using a powerful reductive perturbation technique, or a multiscale analysis, a generic Kadomtsev-Petviashvili evolution equation governing the propagation of femtosecond spatiotemporal optical solitons in quadratic nonlinear media beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation is put forward. Direct numerical simulations show the formation, from adequately chosen few-cycle input pulses, of both stable line solitons (in the case of a quadratic medium with normal dispersio...