Discrete solitons in nonlinear waveguide arrays

Summary form only given. Various types of optical solitons can be formed in the presence of the optical Kerr effect. They have been demonstrated in the time domain as stable light pulses, and in space as self-guided beams in a slab waveguide. Recently, there is a growing interest in discrete spatial solitons. The formation of discrete solitons in an array of coupled optical waveguides was demonstrated recently. In this experiment, light was coupled into one ridge waveguide of an array. As the light propagates, linear coupling between neighboring waveguides broadens the light distribution, so that after propagating for about four coupling lengths, the light is distributed among some 35 waveguides. Increasing the light intensity, such that the Kerr effect becomes significant, results in confinement of the light around the input waveguide. This confined distribution, which propagates along the waveguide without a change of profile, is a discrete soliton. Discrete solitons are analyzed by solving a set of coupled nonlinear equations, which are a discretized version of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation.