Gap solitons in a medium with third-harmonic generation

Abstract

We find two-component optical solitons in a nonlinear waveguide with a Bragg grating, including Kerr effects and third-harmonic generation (THG). The model may be realized in temporal and in spatial domains. Two species of fundamental gap solitons (GSs) are found. The first ("THG-gap soliton") has the bulk of its energy at the fundamental frequency (FF) and a lesser part in the third-harmonic (TH) band. The FF part of the soliton is always single humped; the TH part may be single or double humped. Stability domains for quiescent and moving THG-gap solitons strongly shrink with increase of velocity. The second species is the usual ("simple") GS, sitting entirely in the TH band. More complex solutions are also found, in the form of a bound state of a THG-gap soliton and two simple GSs, with a finite binding energy. When a THG-gap soliton is unstable, the instability is oscillatory. It may ultimately cause the THG-gap soliton to throw off some radiation and evolve into a localized structure with the FF and TH components out of phase, with or without internal oscillations. Stable solitons feature an excited state (i.e., they support a localized eigenmode).