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 in vestigation on dragging is also presented. The two beams enter a planar wav eguide at a small angle between each other, having Gaussian overlapping tra nsverse profiles and different powers. At solitonic powers they trap each o ther, and the strong pump beam is dragged by the weaker signal beam, even i n the presence of strong linear losses. The interaction is phase-insensitiv e, and is promising for implementing an all optical NOT gate. (C) 1999 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.