Domain walls of linear polarization in isotropic Kerr media

Abstract

We present a new type of domain-wall vector solitary waves in isotropic self-defocusing Kerr media. These domain walls consist of localized structures separating uniform field domains of orthogonal linear polarizations. They result from the interplay between diffraction, self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation in cases where the nonlinear birefringence coefficient B = χ(3)xyyx/χ(3)xxxx is negative. Numerical simulations show that these new vector solitary waves are stable.