Discrete diffraction and spatial gap solitons in photovoltaic LiNbO3 waveguide arrays

Opt Express. 2005 May 30;13(11):4314-24. doi: 10.1364/opex.13.004314.

Abstract

We investigate, experimentally and theoretically, light propagation in one-dimensional waveguide arrays exhibiting a saturable self-defocusing nonlinearity. We demonstrate low-intensity "discrete diffraction", and the high-intensity formation of spatial gap solitons arising from the first band of the transmission spectrum. The waveguide arrays are fabricated by titanium in-diffusion in a photorefractive copper-doped lithium niobate crystal, and the optical nonlinearity arises from the bulk photovoltaic effect.