Dark and gray spatial optical solitons in Kerr-type nonlocal media

With the spectral renormalization method (the Fourier iteration method) we compute dark/gray soliton solutions in Kerr-type nonlocal media and find it agrees well with the analytical results. It is indicated when the characteristic nonlocal length is less than a certain critical value, the gray soliton's maximal transverse velocity does not vary with the characteristic nonlocal length, otherwise such maximal velocity decreases with the characteristic nonlocal length. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America