title: Optical spatial solitons at the interface between two dissimilar periodic media: theory and experiment.
abstract: Discrete spatial solitons traveling along the interface between two dissimilar one-dimensional arrays of waveguides were observed for the first time. Two interface solitons were found theoretically, each one with a peak in a different boundary channel. One evolves into a soliton from a linear mode at an array separation larger than a critical separation where-as the second soliton always exhibits a power threshold. These solitons exhibited different power thresholds which depended on the characteristics of the two lattices. For excitation of single channels near and at the boundary, the evolution behavior with propagation distance indicates that the solitons peaked near and at the interface experience an attractive potential on one side of the boundary, and a repulsive one on the opposite side. The power dependence of the solitons at variable distance from the boundary was found to be quite different on opposite sides of the interface and showed evidence for soliton switching between channels with increasing input power.
authors.affiliation: College of Optics and Photonics, CREOL & FPCE, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, Florida 32816, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suntsov
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Makris
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Christodoulides
authors.forename: G I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Stegeman
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morandotti
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Volatier
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Aimez
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arès
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salamo
mesh_terms: D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D010825:Physics / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors