Coherence enhancement of spatially incoherent light beams through soliton interactions

We show that the spatial coherence of a partially incoherent light beam can be greatly enhanced through an energy-conserving interaction with an incoh erent or a coherent dark spatial soliton. Computer simulations show that du ring this process a portion of the incoherent beam is trapped within the da rk notch of the dark soliton, thus forming a sharp intensity spike. In this region the correlation length dramatically increases by at least 2 orders of magnitude. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America.