Nonlinear Self-Flipping of Polarization States in Asymmetric Waveguides

Author

Zhang, Wen Qi ; Lohe, Max A. ; Monro, Tanya M. ; Shahraam, Afshar V.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Univ. of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Volume

24

Issue

16

fYear

2012

Firstpage

1453

Lastpage

1456

Abstract

Waveguides of subwavelength dimensions with asymmetric geometries, such as rib waveguides, can display nonlinear polarization effects in which the nonlinear phase difference dominates the linear contribution, provided the birefringence is sufficiently small. We predict that self-flipping polarization states can appear in such rib waveguides at subwatt power levels. We describe an optical power-limiting device with optimized rib waveguide parameters that can operate at low power with switching properties.

Keywords

birefringence; light polarisation; nonlinear optics; optical waveguides; rib waveguides; asymmetric geometries; asymmetric waveguides; birefringence; linear contribution; nonlinear phase difference; nonlinear polarization effects; nonlinear self-flipping; optical power-limiting device; optimized rib waveguide parameters; self-flipping polarization states; subwavelength dimensions; switching properties; Nonlinear optics; Optical devices; Optical polarization; Optical pulses; Optical refraction; Optical waveguides; Switches; Nonlinear optical devices; nonlinear optical waveguides; nonlinear pulse propagation; optical waveguide polarization; rib waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2012.2205915

Filename

6225422