Solitons in a system of three linearly coupled fiber gratings

We introduce a model of three parallel-coupled nonlinear waveguiding cores equipped with Bragg gratings (BGs), which form an equilateral triangle. The objective of the work is to investigate solitons and their stability in this system. New results are also obtained for the earlier investigated dual-core system. Families of symmetric and antisymmetric solutions are found analytically, extending beyond the spectral gap in both the dual- and tri-core systems. Moreover, these families persist in the case (strong coupling between the cores) when there is no gap in the system's linear spectrum. Three different types of asymmetric solitons are found in the tri-core system. They exist only inside the spectral gap, but asymmetric solitons with nonvanishing tails are found outside the gap as well. The symmetric solitons are stable up to points at which two types of asymmetric solitons bifurcate from them. Beyond the bifurcation, one type of the asymmetric solitons is stable, and the other is not. Then, they swap their stability. In both the dual- and tri-core systems, the stability region of the symmetric solitons extends far beyond the gap, persisting in the case when the system has no gap at all. The whole stability region of antisymmetric solitons is located outside the gap. Thus, solitons in multi-core BGs can be observed experimentally in a much broader frequency band than in the single-core one, and in a wider parameter range than it could be expected.Comment: 20 text pages and 11 figure pages at the end of the document; European Physical Journal D, in pres

Symmetric and asymmetric solitons in linearly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in optical lattices

We study spontaneous symmetry breaking in a system of two parallel quasi-one-dimensional traps, equipped with optical lattices (OLs) and filled with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The cores are linearly coupled by tunneling. Analysis of the corresponding system of linearly coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) reveals that spectral bandgaps of the single GPE split into subgaps. Symmetry breaking in two-component BEC solitons is studied in cases of the attractive (AA) and repulsive (RR) nonlinearity in both traps; the mixed situation, with repulsion in one trap and attraction in the other (RA), is considered too. In all the cases, stable asymmetric solitons are found, bifurcating from symmetric or antisymmetric ones (and destabilizing them), in the AA and RR systems, respectively. In either case, bi-stability is predicted, with a nonbifurcating stable branch, either antisymmetric or symmetric, coexisting with asymmetric ones. Solitons destabilized by the bifurcation tend to rearrange themselves into their stable asymmetric counterparts. The impact of a phase mismatch, between the OLs in the two cores is also studied. Also considered is a related model, for a binary BEC in a single-core trap with the OL, assuming that the two species (representing different spin states of the same atom) are coupled by linear interconversion. In that case, the symmetry-breaking bifurcations in the AA and RR models switch their character, if the inter-species nonlinear interaction becomes stronger than the intra-species nonlinearity.Comment: 21 pages + 24 figs, accepted to Phys. Rev.

Three-Wave Modulational Stability and Dark Solitons in a Quadratic Nonlinear Waveguide with Grating

We consider continuous-wave (CW) states and dark solitons (DSs) in a system of two fundamental-frequency (FF) and one second-harmonic (SH) waves in a planar waveguide with the quadratic nonlinearity, the FF components being linearly coupled by resonant reflections on the Bragg grating. We demonstrate that, in contrast with the usual situation in quadratic spatial-domain models, CW states with the phase shift between the FF and SH components are modulationally stable in a broad parameter region in this system, provided that the CW wavenumber does not belong to the system's spectral gap. Stationary fundamental DSs are found numerically, and are also constructed by means of a specially devised analytical approximation. Bound states of two and three DSs are found too. The fundamental DSs and two-solitons bound states are stable in all the cases when the CW background is stable, which is shown by dint of calculation of the corresponding eigenvalues, and verified in direct simulations. Tilted DSs are found too. They attain a maximum contrast at a finite value of the tilt, that does not depend on the phase mismatch. At a maximum value of the tilt, which grows with the mismatch, the DS merges into the CW background. Interactions between the tilted solitons are shown to be completely elastic.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures; Journal of Optics A, in pres