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Highly Nonlinear Phenomena In Optical Waveguides

Ewan M. Wright, David R. Heatley and George I. Stegeman

An exciting aspect of nonlinear integrated optics is the prediction that the properties of guided waves can become power-dependent when one or more of the guiding media is nonlinear. It is useful to classify these effects as either weakly or highly nonlinear, depending on the ratio of the nonlinear change in refractive-index to the linear index difference between the guiding media. In the weakly nonlinear regime where the ratio is small, the field profiles can be approximated by the linear guided modes and only the propagation constants are power-dependent. In contrast, in the highly nonlinear regime, the ratio is larger than or equal to one, and both the propagation constants and field profiles become power-dependent.