Soliton formation by decelerating interacting Airy beams

We demonstrate a new type of soliton formation arising from the interaction of multiple two-dimensional Airy beams in a nonlinear medium. While in linear regime, interference effects of two or four spatially displaced Airy beams lead to accelerated intensity structures that can be used for optical induction of novel light guiding refractive index structures, the nonlinear cross-interaction between the Airy beams decelerates their bending and enables the formation of straight propagating solitary states. Our experimental results represent an intriguing combination of two fundamental effects, accelerated optical beams and nonlinearity, together enable novel mechanisms of soliton formation that will find applications in all-optical light localization and switching architectures. Our experimental results are supported by corresponding numerical simulations. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America