Bifurcations of optical transverse solitary waves

Bifurcations of optical transverse solitary waves are studied for one-way propagation through a sodium vapor cell. Two types of phase encoding seed transverse bifurcations resulting in cell- exit profiles with beauty rivaling that of a kaleidoscope. The cell-exit profiles are stationary in time, reproduce completely when the power or frequency is scanned, and agree well with one- way computations. Temporal and longitudinal development of the cell-exit profiles is shown, demonstrating both the instability nature of this phenomenon and its solitary wave nature. The first evidence is also presented for a double-peaked Raman gain© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.