Optical switching scheme based on the transmission of coupled gap solitons in nonlinear periodic dielectric media

Abstract

We study the propagation of two pulses with orthogonal linear polarizations in a nonlinear periodic dielectric structure with chi((3)) nonlinearity. Specifically, we derive the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations and find their solitary-wave solutions in a simple case. We show that two orthogonally polarized pulses can copropagate as a coupled gap soliton through a nonlinear periodic structure, while each pulse alone will be strongly reflected owing to the Bragg reflection. Based on the results, we present a new all-optical switching scheme and investigate its operational characteristics.