In this paper, we investigate the optical analog to coherent population return (CPR) in coupled nonlinear waveguides. The nonlinearity sometimes plays a negative role in classical simulations of quantum adiabatic passages in waveguides. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the nonlinearity here helps simulating the adiabatic CPR technique. The CPR can still occur when the detuning (difference of the propagation constants) between the two nonlinear waveguides is moderate, which is a typical requirement of the technique. Moreover, the adiabatic process can appear when the detuning is small or zero. This is done by simply adjusting the incident light power, which is easy and of high accuracy compared with modulating the propagation constants. Therefore, the requirements towards the propagation constants of the waveguides are further relaxed in the nonlinear case. Finally, we point out that the CPR in nonlinear waveguides can be extended to design achromatic beam splitters.
