Effects of pulse collisions in a multilayer system with noninstantaneous cubic nonlinearity

Abstract

The numerical simulations of an ultrashort pulse propagation in a one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal are carried out. It is known that the relaxation of cubic nonlinearity is the reason for the effect of pulse self-trapping in such multilayer system. In this paper we study further implications of this effect. It is shown that the trapped light absorbs additional low-intensity pulses which cannot be self-trapped \textit{per se}. On the other hand, such low-intensity pulses are subject of the so-called induced trapping when light gets trapped due to a collision of two such pulses. We consider the conditions for this effect in both cases of co- and counter-propagating pulses.