OPTICAL SWITCHING BETWEEN DAMPED BISTABLE SOLITON STATES USING PERIODIC AMPLIFIERS

The possibility of cyclic switching between bistable soliton states of the undamped generalized nonlinear Schroedinger equation (GNLSE) has been previously studied by the authors. It is shown that it is possible to 1) maintain bistable solitary wave solutions of the GNLSE in the presence of damping by using localized periodic amplifiers and 2) switch states from low to high and vice versa while maintaining stability. Provided that materials with the appropriate nonlinear mechanisms can be found or fabricated, this simulation points in the direction of two-state optical transmission systems that permit signal processing.