Multidimensional spatial solitons in a laser cavity with a quadratic nonlinearity

Summary form only given. Recently, the observation of multidimensional quadratic solitons was achieved with micro-joule input pulse energies and input irradiances in excess of 10 GW/cm/sup 2/. In order to reduce the input power requirements for multidimensional quadratic-soliton formation, we show experimentally the formation of (2+1) solitons in a CW laser cavity containing a quadratic nonlinear element. In order to compensate for the intracavity losses a linear gain mechanism is introduced via a diode-pumped Nd:YVO/sub 4/ laser crystal. Assuming cylindrical symmetry being preserved, a single transverse dimension is sufficient to model the transverse evolution of the fields involved in our cavity.