Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany

We present the observation of Vortex Light Bullets in two-dimensional arrays of waveguides. Vortex Light Bullets are 3+1-dimensional solitary waves. They are fully self-confined against the broadening action of dispersion and diffraction and exhibit and azimuthal flow of energy. Vortex Light Bullets are the arguably most complex spatiotemporal solitary waves ever observed in an experiment. They are characterized by a complex interplay of optical angular orbital momentum, discreteness, linear and nonlinear spatiotemporal effects. We show that Vortex Light Bullets are stable under experimental conditions. Consequentially we demonstrate that they can be excited with the help of a discrete phase plate and give proof of their observation using an ultrafast spatiotemporal cross-correlation technique.