ANALYSIS OF STABLE SELF-TRAPPING OF LASER-BEAMS IN CUBIC-QUINTIC NONLINEAR MEDIA

A numerical and analytical analysis of two-dimensional laser beam prop agation in cubic-quintic nonlinear optical media demonstrates the exis tence of stable stationary radially symmetric modes. By means of a var iational method, involving super-Gaussian trial functions and Ritz opt imization, approximate stationary solutions are obtained, showing very good agreement with numerical results, even in the strongly nan-linea r, almost saturated, regime. The stability of the stationary modes are verified by analytical analysis and by direct numerical simulations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.