Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Dynamic instability of self-induced bidirectional waveguides in photorefractive media
Philip Jander1, Jochen Schröder, Cornelia Denz
1Institute of Applied Physics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Corrensstrasse 2, D-48149 Münster, Germany. phj@uni-muenster.de
Abstract:
We report on the experimental observation of a dynamic instability in the interaction of counterpropagating self-trapped beams in a photorefractive strontium barium niobate crystal. While the interaction of copropagating spatial optical solitons exhibits only transient dynamics, resulting in a final steady state, the counterpropagating geometry supports a dynamic instability mediated by intrinsic feedback. Experimental observations are compared with and found to be in qualitative agreement with numerical simulations.
Related Concept Videos
Interference and Diffraction
Standing Waves in a Cavity

