Experimental observation of spatial soliton dragging in a planar glass waveguide

The observation of a dragging interaction in a glass waveguide, between two self-trapped beams of orthogonal polarisation, is reported. A numerical investigation on dragging is also presented. The two beams enter a planar waveguide at a small angle between each other, having Gaussian overlapping transverse profiles and different powers. At solitonic powers they trap each other, and the strong pump beam is dragged by the weaker signal beam, even in the presence of strong linear losses. The interaction is phase-insensitive, and is promising for implementing an all optical NOT gate.