A numerical solution to the Zakharov-Shabat inverse scattering problem

Abstract
A new numerical method is developed to solve the inverse scattering problem associated with the Zakharov-Shabat coupled mode equations. In this problem the coupling coefficient for two propagating modes is determined from reflection data. Both codirectional and contradirectional coupling can be accommodated as well as the presence of bound states. Analytical results based on an independent analytical method are derived in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method which is applicable to a broad class of reflection data