INCOHERENTLY COUPLED SCREENING--PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLITON FAMILIES IN BIASED PHOTOVOLTAIC PHOTOREFRACTIVE CRYSTALS

It is shown that the existence of incoherently coupled screening-photovoltaic soliton families is possible in biased photovoltaic photorefractive crystals under steady-state conditions. These screening-photovoltaic soliton families can be established provided the multiple incident beams have the same polarization and wavelength, and are mutually incoherent. Such soliton families reduce to screening-photovoltaic soliton pairs when they contain only two components. Relevant examples are presented where the photovoltaic photorefractive crystal is of the lithium niobate type.