Tutorial invité - Spatial optical solitons: Fundamentals and Applications

International audienceSpatial solitons or more generally self-trapped beams consist of spatially confined waves propagating without change of their transverse profile. Among the different nonlinear media allowing such behavior, we will first depict the versatility of low power photorefractive spatial solitons to realize proof of concepts and illustrate potential applications. Secondly, the recent experimental demonstration of a self-trapped wave, so-called plasmon-soliton, taking advantage of both the plasmonic and the Kerr effects will be presented