Amplitude and phase reconstruction of photorefractive spatial bright-soliton in LiNbO3 during its dynamic formation by digital holography

The time behaviour of bright spatial solitons in congruentundoped lithium niobate crystal is experimentally investigated. Full fieldcharacterization of the optical wavefront emerging from the crystal duringthe soliton formation process is performed by digital holographic method.Experimental results of the amplitude and phase maps of the fielddistribution at the exit face of the crystal allow the real-time monitoring ofthe evolution of the soliton beam from the application of the external fieldto the end of the process when the generation of the channel waveguideappears to be stable. The features of the dynamics of the soliton formationare visualized, analyzed and compared to a time-dependent numericalmodel.