OPTICAL SWITCHING WITH NONLINEAR-OPTICAL LOOP MIRROR USING VECTOR SOLITON STATES IN A NEARLY ISOTROPIC FIBER

Optical switching using a nonlinear optical loop mirror, which exploit s unequal nonlinear phase shifts acquired by linearly and circularly p olarized solitons that counterpropagate the loop, is investigated. The device totally reflects small amplitude light waves and transmits max imally switched soliton-like pulses nearly completely. The device work s for a fiber loop of birefringence of less than 10(-8) and pulses of width of the order of a few hundred femtoseconds. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience B.V.