Stabilization of two-dimensional solitons in cubic-saturable nonlinear lattices

Abstract

We consider soliton dynamics and stability in a nonlinear lattice formed by alternating domains with focusing cubic and saturable nonlinearities. We find that in such lattices, solitons centered on cubic domains may be stabilized even in two-dimensional geometries, in spite of their intrinsic catastrophic instability in the absence of the lattice. Solitons centered on saturable domains are always unstable.