Spatial solitons generated from nonlinear guided modes

Summary form only given.Optical waveguides provide an efficient way of confining and propagating light with the additional advantage of allowing the observation of nonlinear effects at relatively low input powers. However, to create a steerable reconfigurable waveguide in a bulk medium, one may employ a different concept, based on the propagation of self-guided beams or spatial solitons. We link together these two concepts for the first time and consider the problem of the generation of spatial solitons by using nonlinear guided modes of a nonlinear slab waveguide. We analyze how to launch weakly distorted spatial solitons into a slab waveguide to take advantage of the steerable self-guided waves they create. We consider the problem of soliton generation at the end face of a slab waveguide by emitting light straight into a slab from the waveguide.