Light polarization dynamics in self-confined beams and solitons propagating in photorefractive media

Soliton formation in photorefractive crystals with strong optical activity in analysed. We shall demonstrate that selfconfinement
of the laser beam is not enough to define such a beam "a soliton": in fact this state is completely define by
both intensity and polarization soliton dynamics. We report here the characterization of the soliton state for CW and
pulsed beams.