Modeling of a highly nonlinear chalcogenide dual-core photonic crystal fiber coupler

The switching operation of a nonlinear dual-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) coupler, based on a highly nonlinear As2Se3 chalcogenide glass, is numerically studied for the first time. Combining the standard coupled-mode formulation with a full-vectorial integral equation analysis of the PCF geometry, we show that the device parameters can be tailored to achieve switching power requirement ∼1 W at a coupler length of only few centimeters. The dispersion results show that efficient switching can be attained for pulsewidths greater than ∼2 ps.