Two-dimensional laser soliton complexes with weak, strong, and mixed coupling

A review is given of features and motion of two-dimensional dissipative solitons in lasers and laser amplifiers with saturable absorption. We present a rich variety of stable complexes with weak, strong, and mixed coupling of individual laser solitons. The type of coupling is determined by the topology of the distribution of energy flows within the complex. We reveal the existence of stable dissipative soliton complexes with curvilinear motion of their centre of mass. This type of motion results from the field distribution asymmetry and is well pronounced for complexes of laser solitons with strong and mixed types of coupling. Similar complexes are expected to exist in different spatially distributed nonlinear dissipative systems, including schemes with discrete dissipative solitons.