Abstract: We generate higher-order azimuthally modulated Bessel optical lattices in photorefractive crystals by employing a phase-imprinting technique. We report on the experimental observation of self-trapping and nonlinear localization of light in such segmented lattices in the form of ring-shaped and single-site states. The experimental results agree well with numerical simulations accounting for an anisotropic and spatially nonlocal nonlinear response of photorefractive crystals.

Keywords: nonlinear photonic lattices; self-focusing media; nondiffracting beams; diffraction; generation; solitons

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