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Spatial solitons can exist in various kinds of nonlinear optical resonators with and without amplification. In the past years different types of these localized structures such as vortices, bright, dark solitons and phase solitons have been experimentally shown to exist. Many links appear to exist to fields different from optics, such as fluids, phase transitions or particle physics. These spatial resonator solitons are bistable and due to their mobility suggest schemes of information processing not possible with the fixed bistable elements forming the basic ingredient of traditional electronic processing. The recent demonstration of existence and manipulation of spatial solitons in emiconductor microresonators represents a step in the direction of such optical parallel processing applications. We review pattern formation and solitons in a general context, show some proof of principle soliton experiments on slow systems, and describe in more detail the experiments on semiconductor resonator solitons which are aimed at applications., Comment: 15 pages, 32 figures

We demonstrate experimentally and numerically the existence spatial solitons in multiple-quantum-well semiconductor microresonators driven by an external coherent optical field. We discuss stability of the semiconductor-resonator solitons over a wide spectral range around the band edge. We demonstrate the manipulation of such solitons: switching solitons on and off by coherent as well as incoherent light; reducing the light power necessary to sustain and switch a soliton, by optical pumping., Comment: 10 pages, 20 figures

We show experimentally and numerically the existence of stable spatial solitons in an optically pumped semiconductor microresonator. We demonstrate that the pump substantially reduces the light intensity necessary to sustain the solitons and thereby reduces destabilizing thermal effects. We demonstrate coherent switching on and off of bright solitons. We discuss differences between pumped and unpumped below bandgap-solitons., Comment: 2 pages, 4 figures

We find that hexagonal structures forming in semiconductor resonators can range from coherent patterns to arrangements of loosely bound spatial solitons, which can be individually switched. Such incoherent arrangements are stabilized by gradient forces, as evidenced by the stability of hexagonal structures with single- or multiple-soliton defects. We interpret the experimental observations by numerical simulations based on a model for a large aperture semiconductor microresonator., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We show experimentally the existence of bright and dark spatial solitons in semiconductor resonators for excitation above the band gap energy. These solitons can be switched on, both spontaneously and with address pulses, without the thermal delay found for solitons below the band gap which is unfavorable for applications. The differences between soliton properties above and below gap energy are discussed., Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures

Bright and dark spatial solitons are observed in an optically pumped semiconductor resonator. The pumping allows to considerably reduce the light intensity necessary for the existence of the solitons and alleviates thermal load problems. Experiments are found to agree with calculations based on a simple large aperture semiconductor resonator model. The role of signs of the absorptive and reactive nonlinearities for soliton existence are discussed in relation with the nonlinear resonance effect, the tilted wave mechanism of pattern formation, and the sign of the population inversion., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We describe experiments testing the existence and investigating the properties of spatial solitons in nonlinear resonators. We investigate the properties of stationary and moving spatial solitons in lasers with saturable absorber, with a subcritical bifurcation, as well as their manipulation. As opposed, spatial solitons relying on a supercritical bifurcation are shown to exist in degenerate 4-wave mixing (DOPO). With a view to technical applications in parallel information processing or communication, experiments on spatial solitons in large area quantum well semiconductor resonators are conducted., Comment: 12 pages, 27 figures, to appear in book "Spatial Solitons", Springer, 2000

We demonstrate experimentally the bistable nature of the bright spatial solitons in a semiconductor microresonator and show that they can be created and destroyed by incoherent local optical injection., Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures

We show experimentally the existence of bright and dark spatial solitons in a passive quantum-well-semiconductor resonator of large Fresnel number. For the wavelength of observation the nonlinearity is mixed absorptive/defocusing. Bright solitons appear more stable than dark ones., Comment: 4 pages with 7 figures

We report experiments on spatial switching dynamics and steady state structures of passive nonlinear semiconductor resonators of large Fresnel number. Extended patterns and switching front dynamics are observed and investigated. Evidence of localization of structures is given., Comment: 5 pages with 9 figures