Spatial optical solitons in planar glass waveguides

We report experimental studies of spatial optical solitons in a nonlinear glass waveguide. Spatial solitons are self-trapped beams that propagate without diffraction. We demonstrate the formation of spatial solitons, and we investigate interactions between them. At high intensities two-photon absorption is observed to lead to the breakup of solitons. A beam propagation method is used to simulate the experimental conditions numerically, and the results agree well with experiment.