Design and simulation of optical switches on nonlinear glass

The soliton emission phenomenon can be exploited to design ultrafast switches to be used in all-optical processing systems. When very high speed switching is required and unless high optical power is used, there are needed switching devices very short in length. The propagation characteristics of the soliton emission from a nonlinear interface is simulated using the Beam Propagation Method. The effects of the interaction between two solitons emitted from two different nonlinear interfaces and propagating in a common nonlinear substrate are examined. Based on these principles, new all-optical switching elements can be designed, which exhibit many important advantages on the classical electro-optical devices.