The impact of temperature on the evolution and self-deflection of spatial optical solitons in photovoltaic photorefractive media

The temperature effects on the evolution and self-deflection of bright spatial optical solitons in photovoltaic photorefractive media were investigated by taking into account diffusion effects. The numerical results show that the evolution of the bright solitary beam depends strongly on the crystal temperature. It is also found that the bending distance of the bright solitary beam centre increases and reaches its maximum value at a characteristic temperature, and then decreases as temperature rises and approaches zero at low and high temperatures. Both the maximum value and characteristic temperature increase with the input power density. The self-deflection of bright solitary beam is further studied by a perturbation technique, and the results are found to be in good agreement with that obtained by the numerical method. The diffusion process and the dark irradiance dominate the temperature dependence of bending distance in most values of temperature besides at the characteristic temperature and in the higher temperature regime. The diffusion process will mainly dominate the temperature dependence at the characteristic temperature and the dark irradiance will dominate in the higher temperature range. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10574051, 10174025), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Grant No. 2008CDB005) and Research Foundation for Outstanding Young Teachers, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)