Impact of loss on the light propagation in 1D optical waveguide array in the presence of Kerr-type nonlinearity

The interplay between radiation loss (diagonal and off-diagonal) and Kerr-type nonlinearity on the light propagation in 1D array of nonlinear dissipative optical waveguides are investigated numerically. Our results show that, at low nonlinear parameters, the diagonal loss only reduces the light intensity in the guides and does not affect the ballistic regime of light spreading. However, for nonlinear parameters above a critical value, the transition from the localized to the ballistic regime can be observed, after certain propagation distance. The study of the interplay between off-diagonal loss term and Kerr type nonlinearity, demonstrates that the results depend mainly to the nonlinear parameter strength. In this case, and for low strength of nonlinearity, the transition from ballistic to diffusive regime is observed after a critical propagation distance, while, spreading from localized to diffusive regime occurs at high nonlinear parameters (above the critical one). In addition, we have examined the impact of the both diagonal and off-diagonal losses in highly nonlinear optical lattices. In this case, by increasing the propagation distance, three different regimes of light spreading (from localized to the ballistic, and then, from ballistic to the diffusive) can be observed. Both critical propagation distances in which these transitions occur increase by the magnitude of the nonlinear parameter, while, decrease by the enhancement of the loss coefficients. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.