Nonlinear Switching Characteristics of an Arrow Based Directional Coupler

Abstract : ARROW's (Antiresonant Reflecting Optical Waveguides) attracted a considerable interest within recent years. Contrary to conventional waveguiding the underlying mechanism consists in phase - matched Fabry-Perot-action rather than total internal reflection. In this paper we show that the inclusion of the optical nonlinearity into an ARROW-based directional coupler scheme leads to novel all-optical switching characteristics.