Analysis of a nonlinear Mach-Zhender Interferometer

In the present paper, a detailed investigation on the switching behavior of a nonlinear Mach-Zhender Interferometer (NMZI) has been carried out using Beam Propagation Method (BPM). A NMZI is the Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) in which one arm is made-up of a nonlinear material. Considering one optical input (one beam), a thorough investigation on input verses output characteristic has been carried out by varying different parameters like length of the arms, refractive index of the linear/ nonlinear arm, wavelength of the input beams and nonlinear coefficient of the material of the nonlinear arm. The present paper provides a physical y intuitive understanding of the effect of changing different parameters of the NMZI on its switching behavior.