SOLITON DYNAMICS AND SURFACE-WAVES AT THE INTERFACE BETWEEN SATURABLENONLINEAR DIELECTRICS

The paper deals with light propagation at the interface between two sa turable nonlinear dielectrics. We first find analytically that surface waves can be sustained by such an interface and we discuss, using the equivalent particle approach, their stability properties. We explain here the similarities and differences with respect to the well known p roperties of surface waves of the pure Kerr case. We then study the re flection and refraction of self-trapped beams at the interface. It is found that the existence of two stable values of amplitude for a given beam width translates into the possibility of refraction being replac ed by reflection for the same beam shape at different power levels. Th e possible use of this phenomenon in all-optical processing is studied analytically through the equivalent particle approach and the obtaine d results are verified by means of numerical integration of the govern ing equation.