Soliton control in chirped photonic lattices

Abstract

We study optical solitons in chirped periodic optical lattices whose amplitude or frequency changes in the transverse direction. We discover that soliton propagation in such lattices can be accompanied by the progressive self-bending of the soliton trajectory, and we show that the soliton bending rate and output position can be controlled by varying the lattice depth, as well as the chirp amplitude and frequency modulation rate. This effect has potential applications for controllable soliton steering and routing.