Multipole surface solitons in thermal media

We address the existence and properties of multipole solitons localized at a thermally insulating interface between uniform or layered thermal media and a linear dielectric. We find that in the case of uniform media, only surface multipoles with less than three poles can be stable. In contrast, we reveal that periodic alternation of the thermo-optic coefficient in layered thermal media makes possible the stabilization of higher-order multipoles. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America