Steerable bright-soliton Y-junctions from second-order Hermite–Gaussians

Abstract

Steering properties of bright-soliton Y-junctions excited from second-order Hermite–Gaussian beams in a nonlinear Kerr medium are investigated numerically. The numerical study is supplemented by a variational approach of two different types. The first one solves the Zakharov–Shabat scattering problem, and the moment method is applied to determine the trial eigensolution. The second approach utilizes the trial function ansatz of the second-order Hermite–Gaussian form and solves the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Good agreement is found between numerical calculations and variational approximations.