Spatial Solitons in Resonators

We describe experiments testing the existence and investigating the properties of spatial solitons in nonlinear resonators. We investigate the properties of stationary and moving spatial solitons in lasers with saturable absorber, with a subcritical bifurcation, as well as their manipulation. As opposed, spatial solitons relying on a supercritical bifurcation are shown to exist in degenerate 4-wave mixing (DOPO). With a view to technical applications in parallel information processing or communication, experiments on spatial solitons in large area quantum well semiconductor resonators are conducted.