Cavity solitons in semiconductor microresonators

We introduce the basic physical mechanisms governing a semiconductor heterostructure-based microresonator: e.g. the carrier density dynamics coupled to the diffractive dynamics of the field, a proper modelization of the mutual nonlinear interaction, and the carrier diffusion. Although diffusion is normally an anti-patterning effect, and even in presence of self-defocusing nonlinearities (typical of passive devices), we can predict extended and experimentally achievable regimes where spatial solitons are stable.