Optical Delay Lines Based on Soliton Propagation in Photonic Crystal Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguides

In this paper, a study of optical delay lines based on soliton propagation in coupled resonator optical waveguides is performed. For a given bit rate and required delay, design equations are given that relate the soliton peak power and collision period to the soliton width. To study the influence of higher order linear and nonlinear dispersion, a continuous wave propagation model incorporating these effects is also derived. Using this model, the soliton stability in the presence of higher order dispersion, optical loss and adjacent soliton pulses is numerically verified. It is also shown that soliton-based delay lines can achieve nanosecond delay at a propagation length of a few millimeters due to the high slow down factors that can be obtained.