Dynamics of formation and interaction of photorefractive screening solitons

An experimental and numerical investigation of the dynamical, time-dependen t effects accompanying the Formation and interaction of two-dimensional spa tial screening solitons in a photorefractive strontium barium niobate cryst al is performed. These effects include initial diffraction, collapse to the soliton shape, the oscillation of beam diameters, beam bending, and the ro tation, twisting, and turning of soliton pairs. The dynamics of complex spi raling of two incoherent solitons is considered in more detail. [S1063-651X (99)05611-1].