Linear and nonlinear waveguides induced by optical vortex solitons

Abstract

We study, numerically and analytically, linear and nonlinear waveguides induced by optical vortex solitons in a Kerr medium. Both fundamental and first-order guided modes are analyzed, as well as cases of effective defocusing and focusing nonlinearity.

Optical vortices and vortex solitons

“…Optical vortices propagating, e.g., in air, have been suggested also for the establishment of optical interconnects between electronic chips and boards (Scheuer and Orenstein [1999]), as well as free-space communication links (Gibson, Courtial, Padgett, Vasnetsov, Pas'ko, Barnett, and Franke-Arnold [2004]; Bouchal and Celechovsky [2004]), based on the multidimensional alphabets afforded by the corresponding angular momentum states (MolinaTerriza, ). The ability to use light vortices to create reconfigurable patterns of complex intensity in an optical medium could aid optical trapping of particles in a vortex field (Gahagan and Swartzlander [1999]), and could enable light to be guided by the light itself, or in other words by the waveguides created by optical vortices (Truscott, Friese, Heckenberg, and Rubinsztein-Dunlop [1999]; Law, Zhang, and Swartzlander [2000]; Carlsson, Malmberg, Anderson, Lisak, Ostrovskaya, Alexander, and Kivshar [2000]; Salgueiro, Carlsson, Ostrovskaya, and Kivshar [2004]). Thus, singular optics, the study of wave singularities in optics (Nye and Berry [1974]; Vasnetsov and Staliunas [1999]; Soskin and Vasnetsov [2001]), is now emerging as a new discipline (for an extended list of references, see http://www.u.arizona.edu/ grovers/SO/so.html).…”

Directional coupling of optical signals by odd dark beams with mixed phase dislocations

“…Figure 4 shows the positions and the forms of the weak signal beams guided by the corresponding dark one after a nonlinear propagation path length ζ = 10. Channel 0 is assumed to be supported by an OVS [2,3] with backround intensity 1.5I 1D DSS , channels 1 and −1 by ODBs with SS phase dislocations of b/a = 1.5 at I = 1.5I 1D DSS , whereas channels 2 and −2 are considered to be induced by ODBs with ES phase dislocations with b/a = 2.5 at I = 1.25I 1D DSS . The change of the ODB steering direction in the NLM (i.e.…”

“…Let us denote the channels as C IJ , where I and J are the respective row and column indices. The central output channel C 22 , which is on axis with respect to the input one, is addressed by an OVS [2,3], the side channels C 21 , C 23 , C 12 , and C 32 by ODBs with appropriately ±90…”

“…Dark spatial solitons (DSSs) formed in bulk selfdefocusing Kerr-type nonlinear media (NLM) are able to guide co-propagating probe beams/pulses [1,2,3]. The physical mechanism underlying is the intensitydependent refractive-index change in a plane perpendicular to the propagation direction.…”

Second-harmonic generation in vortex-induced waveguides

“…Optical vortex solitons are light beams self-trapped in two spatial dimensions and carrying a phase dislocation. A systematic analysis of the waveguides created by vortex solitons in a Kerr medium [10,11] demonstrates that an optical vortex can guide both weak and strong probe beams, and that in the latter case the vortex creates a stable vector soliton with its guided component [1].In this Letter, we study the second-harmonic generation in a reconfigurable vortex-induced waveguide and determine conditions for significant enhancement of the conversion efficiency. We also describe novel types of three-component vector solitons created by a vortex beam together with both fundamental and second-harmonic parametrically coupled localized modes guided by the vortex-induced waveguide.…”