All-optical spatial switching of solitary waves in KTP

Summary form only given. The recent demonstration of large nonlinear optical phase shifts in quadratic nonlinear materials, and the observation of spatial solitary waves have made possible several new applications such as phase-controlled transistors and solitary wave dragging. The solitary waves form above a threshold power and are a result of strongly coupled fundamental and second-harmonic waves, which propagate without either diffraction or walk-off. We demonstrate all-optical spatial steering based on solitary-wave formation utilizing a type II frequency-degenerate process, which leads to phase-insensitive switching at powers above the self-guiding threshold in bulk KTiOPO/sub 4/ crystal.