Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute - Research Publications

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2-D solitary waves in thermal media with nonsymmetric boundary conditions

Louis, SA ; Marchant, TR ; Smyth, NF (WILEY, 2019-05)

Abstract Optical solitary waves and their stability in focusing thermal optical media, such as lead glasses, are studied numerically and theoretically in (2 + 1) dimensions. The optical medium is a square cell and mixed boundary conditions of Newton cooling and fixed temperature on different sides of the cell are used. Nonlinear thermal optical media have a refractive index which depends on temperature, so that heating from the optical beam and heat flow across the boundaries can change the refractive index of the medium. Solitary wave solutions are found numerically using the Newton conjugate‐gradient method, while their stability is studied using a linearized stability analysis and also via numerical simulations. It is found that the position of the solitary wave is dependent on the boundary conditions, with the center of the beam moving toward the warmer boundaries, as the parameters are varied. The stability of the solitary waves depends on the symmetry of the boundary conditions and the amplitude of the solitary waves.