Diffraction-managed solitons and nonlinear beam diffusion in modulated arrays of optical waveguides

TL;DR

This paper investigates light propagation in nonlinear diffraction-managed photonic lattices, demonstrating the first experimental observation of diffraction-managed solitons and revealing a novel nonlinear beam diffusion regime at intermediate powers.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental realization of diffraction-managed solitons in periodically-curved waveguide arrays and explores nonlinear beam diffusion phenomena.

Findings

Observation of diffraction-managed solitons in optical waveguides

Identification of nonlinear beam diffusion at intermediate powers

Demonstration of different propagation regimes depending on input power

Abstract

We study propagation of light in nonlinear diffraction-managed photonic lattices created with arrays of periodically-curved coupled optical waveguides which were fabricated using femtosecond laser writing in silica glass, and titanium indiffusion in LiNbO3 crystals. We identify different regimes of the nonlinear propagation of light beams depending on the input power, and present the first experimental observation of diffraction-managed solitons, which are formed as a result of the interplay between the engineered beam diffraction and nonlinear self-focusing or defocusing. We observe that in self-collimating structures where linear diffraction is suppressed, a novel regime of nonlinear beam diffusion takes place at the intermediate powers before the lattice soliton is formed at higher powers.