Interaction of Localized Structures in an Optical Pattern-Forming System

Abstract

We report on the observation and interaction of dissipative localized structures in an optical pattern-forming system. Single localized structures are found to have oscillatory decaying tails originating from diffraction. We observe bound states of two or more constituents. These clusters contain several preferred mutual distances. Numerical simulations show that the corresponding interactions are mediated by the oscillatory tails.