Abstract

We report the dragging and mutual trapping of two initially overlapped, orthogonally polarized, one-dimensional spatial solitons in an AlGaAs slab waveguide. Using this effect, we realized an all-optical switch that had an on/off switching contrast of ~2.5:1. The contrast of the switch increased to 4:1 when a soliton was used to drag a nonsoliton, weak beam.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

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)

Asymmetric spatial soliton dragging

Steve Blair, Kelvin Wagner, and Robert McLeod
Opt. Lett. 19(23) 1943-1945 (1994)

Experimental spatial soliton trapping and switching

M. Shalaby and A. Barthelemy
Opt. Lett. 16(19) 1472-1474 (1991)

Circular waveguides induced by two-dimensional bright steady-state photorefractive spatial screening solitons

Ming-feng Shih, Mordechai Segev, and Greg Salamo
Opt. Lett. 21(13) 931-934 (1996)

Dynamic, electronically controlled angle steering of spatial solitons in AlGaAs slab waveguides

L. Friedrich, G. I. Stegeman, P. Millar, C. J. Hamilton, and J. S. Aitchison
Opt. Lett. 23(18) 1438-1440 (1998)