Reconfigurable waveguides for soliton-driven photonics

摘要

We review the propagation and interaction behaviour of spatial screening solitons generated in a photorefractive SBN crystal in order to exploit them for new perspectives in soliton-driven photonics. We report on the successful experimental generation of an array of 5 x 5 spatial screening solitons. The waveguide properties of each channel are probed by a beam of different wavelength, and each channel is found to guide the probe beam independently. By combining the interaction and waveguide properties, we achieved channel combination and separation, thereby realizing complex waveguide couplers and dividers. Furthermore we show that image processing is possible using parallel propagating photorefractive solitons, allowing to create new features in the frame of the concept of "light is guiding light".