Effects of pulse collisions in a multilayer system with noninstantaneous cubic nonlinearity

Abstract

Numerical simulations of an ultrashort pulse propagation in a one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal are carried out. It is known that the relaxation of cubic nonlinearity is the reason for the effect of pulse self-trapping in such a multilayer system. In this paper we study further implications of this effect. It is shown that the trapped light absorbs additional low-intensity pulses which cannot be self-trapped per se. On the other hand, such low-intensity pulses are subject to the so-called induced trapping when light becomes trapped due to a collision of two such pulses. We consider the conditions for this effect in cases of both co- and counter-propagating pulses.