LAUSR

Abstract The propagation behavior of bright spatial solitons under the diffusion effect in photovoltaic (PV) photorefractive (PR) crystals poled periodically is investigated by considering the optical absorption of the crystals. The numerical simulations show that, soliton beams follow a wiggling trajectory under the combined influence of the crystal absorption and the diffusion effect which is properly managed by designing the periodic domain inversion structure of periodically poled PV PR crystals. Moreover, the oscillation amplitude of the wiggling trajectory of a low-intensity soliton decreases gradually with the propagation distance, but the situation for a high-intensity soliton is contrary. Furthermore, the recursive equations describing the propagation trajectory are formulated and the analytical result of the propagation trajectory is in good agreement with the numerical one. The research results contribute to enriching the dynamics of PR spatial solitons and provide a method to suppress the self-deflection of soliton beams arising from the diffusion effect.