Abstract

The unique interaction of diffraction and Kerr-nonlinearity in waveguide arrays enables the formation of self-localised light fields, so called discrete solitons (DS) [1]. They have been investigated for their application in all-optical networking applications and the idea of switching DSs at junctions of waveguide arrays has been proposed [2,3]. But also linear pulses can be deflected by DSs, so called blockers, as it has been demonstrated in one-dimensional AlGaAs arrays a few years ago [4]. However, two-dimensional structures are desirable for more sophisticated logical operations.

© 2009 IEEE