Self-routing switching of solitonlike pulses in multiple-core nonlinear fiber arrays

A unified framework to optimize power discrimination for self-routing switching of solitonlike pulses in multiple-core fiber arrays is presented. This framework, based on the variational approach, is applicable to all-optical switching in N-core nonlinear fiber arrays for any configuration of the cores. By defining a quality factor as the product of the maxima of ail the transmission curves characterizing the switching process in the fiber array, we show that when linearly varying coupling coefficients are considered improved performance can be achieved. By use of the split-step Fourier method the accuracy of the reduced formulation is ensured. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(00)00107-7].