Abstract

We show that a collision between two bright spatial solitons acts as an asymmetric optical Y junction and, in specific cases, as an optical switch for the weak beams that they guide. The output energy of the probe beams in each optical channel can be controlled by adjustment of either the relative direction or the phase of the two colliding solitons or by a change in the wavelength of the probe beams. A physical description of such behavior based on the diffraction of the incident probe beams by a diffraction grating formed by the spatial-soliton collision profile is presented.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

Waveguide properties of the asymmetric collision between two bright spatial solitons in Kerr media

D. Ramírez Martínez, M. M. Méndez Otero, M. L. Arroyo Carrasco, and M. D. Iturbe Castillo
Opt. Express 20(24) 27411-27418 (2012)

Collisions, steering, and guidance with spatial solitons

A. W. Snyder and A. P. Sheppard
Opt. Lett. 18(7) 482-484 (1993)

Weak-beam trapping by bright spatial solitons in AlGaAs planar waveguides

J. U. Kang, G. I. Stegeman, and J. S. Aitchison
Opt. Lett. 20(20) 2069-2071 (1995)

Waveguides and Y junctions formed in bulk media by using dark spatial solitons

Barry Luther-Davies and Yang Xiaoping
Opt. Lett. 17(7) 496-498 (1992)

All-optical switching by means of collisions of spatial vector solitons

X. D. Cao and D. D. Meyerhofer
Opt. Lett. 19(21) 1711-1713 (1994)