Structural crossover of fractional nonlinear Schrödinger solitons in saturable media Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • We study stationary fundamental and vortex solitons of the two-dimensional fractional nonlinear Schrödinger equation with saturable self-focusing nonlinearity, for fractional diffraction order ¿¿(1,2], saturation strength s, propagation constant ¿, and topological charge m. Solution families are computed with a spectral Petviashvili¿Hankel method. We identify a saturation-induced structural crossover separating localization-dominated and saturation-limited regimes, signaled by minima of the effective width and vortex-ring radius followed by radial re-expansion. An exact scaling transformation removes the saturation strength from the continuous model, collapses families with different s onto master curves in the scaled propagation constant ¿=s¿, and shows that the crossover locations obey ¿¿¿s¿1. Their remaining dependence on ¿ and m is mapped over the explored parameter range. For the representative m=1 vortex branch, azimuthally resolved linear-stability analysis and weakly perturbed nonlinear propagation consistently identify a twofold (¿=2) azimuthal instability as the dominant symmetry-breaking mechanism. For 1<¿<2, the far field decays algebraically as r¿(2+¿+|m|), whereas the standard-diffraction limit ¿=2 recovers exponential localization.

publication date

  • November 1, 2026