John M. McSloy

Two-dimensional clusters of solitary structures in driven optical cavities

Interaction between localized structures in the transverse plane of a passive optical cavity containing a saturable medium is studied analytically and numerically. Stability properties of clusters of localized structures and their spontaneous motion are described.

Dynamical properties of two-dimensional Kerr cavity solitons

We present the results of our study of the dynamics of two-dimensional Kerr cavity solitons. The solitons are absolutely stable over a substantial parameter domain. We analyze their dynamics beyond the instability boundary, finding regions of stable oscillation and of fivefold or sixfold azimuthal instability. The Hopf oscillation is surprisingly robust, owing to the influence of a lower-amplitude unstable soliton.

Cracking of optical patterns

This work characterizes the process of cracking of optical patterns by studying the evolution of the homogeneous islands for different values of the parameters, the initial wave-vector and the amplitude of an additive noise. In particular, an initial hexagonal structure is considered with wave-vector smaller than the critical wave-vector of the incoming modulational instability.