We present numerically exact solitary solutions to the propagation equations of two incoherently coupled light beams in media with nonlocal anisotropic photorefractive nonlinearity. The vector solitons we studied consist of a nodeless beam and a dipole that is oriented perpendicular to the electric field applied to the photorefractive crystal. The solutions form a continuous set that ranges from vector solitons with negligible dipole contribution to vecor solitons with negligible contribution of the nodeless beam[2]. The theoretical results are compared to experimental data, showing qualitative agreement. Furthermore we show that vector solitons consisting of a nodeless beam and a dipole oriented parallel to the externally applied field do exist, but are far more difficult to obtain experimentally and eventually get unstable.
[1] C. Weilnau, M. Ahles, C. Denz, A. Stepken, K. Motzek, F. Kaiser, "Higher order optical (2+1)dimensional spatial vector solitons in an anisotropic medium", Phys. Rev. E, submitted.
[2] K. Motzek, A. Stepken, F. Kaiser, M. R. Belic, M. Ahles, C. Weilnau, C. Denz, "Dipole-mode vector solitons in anisotropic photorefractive media", Optics Commumications, submitted.