Abstract

Nonlinear directional couplers use the interaction between two closely-spaced nonlinear optical waveguides to switch pulses from one waveguide to the other. Because this interaction is nonlinear, the large-amplitude pulse center is switched more easily than the small- amplitude pulse tails, even to the extent that these two parts of the pulse can be directed to different output ports.¹ This pulse break-up leads to reduced efficiency of such optical switching devices. It has been observed that squaring-up the optical pulses improves the switching efficiency,¹ since a sharper pulse has less energy in its tails.

© 1994 Optical Society of America