SPLITTING OF LIGHT-BEAMS WITH SPIRAL PHASE DISLOCATIONS INTO SOLITONSIN BULK QUADRATIC NONLINEAR MEDIA

We investigate the propagation of intense light beams in bulk quadrati c nonlinear crystals under conditions for second-harmonic generation. We show numerically that input light beams with a spiral phase disloca tion self-split in the crystal into several spatial solitons. The numb er and the pattern of output solitons can be controlled by the materia l and wave parameters involved and in particular by the input-light in tensity and by the topological charge of the dislocation. (C) 1997 Opt ical Society of America.