Phase control reduction of four-wave mixing in induced waveguiding scheme

Summary form only given. We investigate the waveguiding induced in a weak probe propagating in a medium of two-level atoms driven by a copropagating, intense, strongly detuned pump. We show that when the transverse profile of the pump exhibits solitonlike oscillations, similar oscillations can be induced in the transverse profile of the probe. The pump acts as a spatial soliton in the sense that its transverse intensity profile displays oscillating spatial behavior due to the interplay of self-focusing and diffraction. This work suggests that the importance of four-wave mixing in modifying induced waveguiding should be considered in other waveguiding schemes. The potential of phase control in manipulating the properties of propagating laser light in a sophisticated way is emphasized.