… We report the first observation of self-trapping of a spatially incoherent optical beam in a
nonlinear medium. Self-trapping occurs in both transverse dimensions, when diffraction is
exactly balanced by photorefractive self-focusing. [S0031-9007(96)00610-2] … In this Letter
we report the first observation of selftrapping of a “partially” spatially incoherent optical
beam in a nonlinear medium. We have used the photorefractive nonlinearity associated
with photorefractive solitons as the …

Self-trapping of optical beams has been extensively studied during the last three decades. It
occurs when the beam changes the optical properties of the medium it propagates in, giving
rise to a strong optical nonlinearity. Self-trapping of optical beams has been observed in
Kerr media, saturable nonlinear media, cascaded c (2) media, and photorefractives.
However, all previous experimental observations and theoretical studies investigated self-
trapping of spatially coherent light beams only. To the best of our knowledge, no previous …