Abstract: We present an overview of recent advances in the understanding of optical beams in nonlinear media with a spatially nonlocal nonlinear response. We discuss the impact of nonlocality on the modulational instability of plane waves, the collapse of finite-size beams, and the formation and interaction of spatial solitons.

Keywords: modulational instabilities; solitons; collapse theory; nonlocal media;; bose-einstein condensate; nematic liquid-crystals; optical vortex solitons; ultra-short pulses; attractive interactions; solitary waves; dynamics; collapse; physics; generation

Copyright © by the respective publisher. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the publisher.