SOLITON PROPAGATION IN SATURABLE NONLINEAR FIBRE COUPLERS — VARIATIONAL AND NUMERICAL RESULTS

The problem of optical soliton propagation in couplers with saturation of nonlinear refractive index is investigated using a simple variational approach. From this study, important features relating to optical switching and soliton eigen-states are revealed. For instance, a parameter, γmax, which characterizes the limiting effect of saturation in optical switching, is identified. We carry out numerical solutions to the problem and confirm that the approximate approach does give results agreeing with those from the simulation.