All-optical delay line using semiconductor cavity solitons

An all-optical delay line based on the lateral drift of cavity solitons in semiconductor microresonators is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The functionalities of the device proposed as well as its performance is analyzed and compared with recent alternative methods based on the decrease of group velocity in the vicinity of resonances. We show that the current limitations can be overcome using broader devices with tailored material responses

A closed-system approach to quantum retrodiction in open systems

Ban (Int. J. Theor. Phys. 46:184, 2007) has shown how retrodictive open systems evolution may be treated as unitary using non-equilibrium thermo field dynamics. Here we describe the application of another technique with the same purpose, Fano diagonalisation

Self-propelled cavity solitons in semiconductor microcavities

We demonstrate the existence of both bright and dark spontaneously moving spatial solitons in a model of a semiconductor microcavity. The motion is caused by temperature-induced changes in the cavity detuning and arises through an instability of the stationary soliton solution above some threshold. An order parameter equation is derived for the moving solitons and is used to explain their behavior in the presence of externally imposed parameter modulations. The existence of two-dimensional moving solitons is demonstrated and an example given of their interaction

Suppression of spatial chaos via noise-induced growth of arrays of spatial solitons

Domain walls with oscillatory tails are commonplace in models of spatially extended nonlinear optical devices. Their interaction and locking at discrete distances lead to asymptotically stable spatial disorder. We show that noise in the presence of domain walls with oscillatory tails can suppress spatial disorder by privileging highly correlated dynamical states consisting of arrays of spatial solitons

Spatial response of cavity systems

We show that a plane-mirror Fabry-Perot cavity is capable of converting a spatially phase (amplitude) modulated input beam into an amplitude (phase) modulated output. For a cavity close to resonance the effect is most easily seen for negative detunings. When nonlinear elements are added to the mean-field cavity, the effect persists but acquires an intensity dependence, while the requirement of net negative dispersion remains. In addition, the output of a near-resonant nonlinear cavity can have the same type of modulation as the input, something which is impossible in the corresponding linear cavity. These results are demonstrated in cavities containing Kerr or two-level materials, as well as in optical parametric oscillators

Reversible soliton motion

We show that spatial solitons on either phase- or amplitude-modulated backgrounds can change their direction of motion according to the modulation frequency. A soliton may, therefore, move up or down phase gradients or remain motionless regardless of where it is in relation to the background modulation. The general theory is in good agreement with numerical results in a variety of nonlinear systems

Pulse compression by slow saturable absorber action in an optical parametric oscillator

We present numerical simulations of a singly-resonant, synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator with intra-cavity slow saturable absorber. These indicate that compression ratios of about five or more may be achieved for realistic absorber parameters. The behaviour of the parametric oscillator with absorber presents a novel nonlinear resonance which is due specifically to the nature of the parametric three-wave interaction and which would not appear in a laser system