Abstract

Optical solitons arise as self-trapped transverse spatial profiles in nonlinear planar waveguides or as temporal pulse shapes in fibers. Spatial and temporal solitons have been observed in different experiments, opening the way to realize, thanks to their interesting properties¹, all-optical devices^2,3. Soliton propagation through nonlinear interfaces, that is in condition of strong perturbation, has already been studied^4,5. In this paper we want to study the propagation of a soliton beam in a waveguide with a gaussian refractive index profile, where the initial position of the maximum intensity of soliton is shifted with respect to the position of the maximum of the index profile. The index profile occurs along a direction orthogonal to both the propagation and the confinement direction. In this situation the beam is attracted torward the center of the index profile, acquiring a certain velocity that allows it to pass this point and to continue to move torward the other side of the index profile, decreasing its velocity. The situation is very similar to the trajectory of a mass in a gravitational potential hole.

© 1996 IEEE