Abstract
In this investigation, both bright and dark envelope optical solitons to a (2+1)-dimensional cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation (cNLSE) are examined. We employ distinct powerful ansatze to obtain exact analytical bright soliton and dark soliton solutions to the mentioned model, which is characterized by cubic nonlinearity. Furthermore, some other forms of distinct structures that include singular, periodic, exponential solutions, and new forms of rational solutions are formally derived. The work shows the pertinent contribution of cubic nonlinearity to optical solitons. The novelty of this work is that it recovers dark and bright soliton solutions, besides a variety of other solutions to the model.