Spatial Optical Solitons and Soliton Clusters Carrying an Angular Momentum

Abstract

We describe different types of ring-profile optical solitary wave and clusters of fundamental solitons propagating in isotropic nonlinear optical media. Such ringlike solitons carry a finite angular momentum and, depending on the value of the total momentum and structure, they either fragment quickly into several fundamental solitons that fly off the ring, or propagate stably for many diffraction lengths with rotating intensity and phase. Stabilization of the ring-profile optical beams and rotating soliton clusters due to vectorial interaction is also demonstrated.