Steerable optical waveguides formed by bright spatial solitons in AlGaAs

Abstract
The authors show theoretically and experimentally that the propagation direction of bright spatial solitons can be easily controlled by spatially varying the phase across the soliton at its input into the nonlinear medium, in this case an AlGaAs slab waveguide. The advantages of bright solitons over dark solitons for steerable waveguides are discussed.