Analytic study of orthogonally polarized solitons interacting in highly birefringent optical fibers

We examine analytically, numerically, and experimentally the phase shift incurred by a soliton pulse when it collides with a copropagating, orthogonally polarized soliton pulse in a highly birefringent optical fiber. Use of a well-known average variational principle and a Gaussian ansatz reduces the dynamics to a set of ordinary differential equations for which an approximate analytic solution is found in the case of highly birefringent fibers. The analytic approximation is shown to be in good agreement with the full numerical model and experimental data, allowing it to be used as an evaluation tool for the design of nonlinear optical loop mirror switches. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.