Discrete light bullet vortices

Abstract

We discuss the observation of Vortex Light Bullets in Arrays of Waveguides. These are among the most complex spatiotemporal solitary waves observed in an experiment. They are characterized by a complex interplay of angular orbital momentum and nonlinear, spatiotemporal effects. We show that Vortex Light Bullets exhibit a new mode of stability and show that they are robust under realistic experimental conditions. We demonstrate that they can be excited with the help of a discrete phase plate and give proof of their existence using an ultrafast spatiotemporal cross-correlation technique and rigorous numerical analysis.