FEMTOSECOND SOLITON PULSES IN BIREFRINGENT OPTICAL FIBERS

CHEN YJ ATAI J

Yj. Chen et J. Atai, FEMTOSECOND SOLITON PULSES IN BIREFRINGENT OPTICAL FIBERS, Journal of the Optical Society of America. B, Optical physics, 14(9), 1997, pp. 2365-2372

29

INGLESE

Article

Optics

Journal of the Optical Society of America. B, Optical physics → ACNP

0740-3224

14

9

1997

2365 - 2372

ISI

0740-3224(1997)14:9<2365:FSPIBO>2.0.ZU;2-C

We consider femtosecond soliton-pulse propagation in a birefringent op tical fiber where rapidly oscillating terms, the difference in polariz ation dispersions, and the difference in group velocities of the two p olarization components have to be taken into account. We demonstrate t he existence of a novel class of linearly polarized soliton states (wi th the linear polarization ranging from 0 to 2 pi). We also find the e lliptically polarized soliton states, which do not appear to be accept able to the coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations describing the pul se evolution in the birefringent fiber when the different dispersions between the two polarizations are ignored and the group-velocity diffe rence is taken into account. More importantly, the corresponding stabi lity analysis reveals that within certain operating regions the fast s oliton can be stable and the slow soliton can be unstable, whereas in the others the fast soliton is unstable and the slow soliton is stable , in contrast to those reported earlier by neglecting different polari zation dispersions. On the other hand, both the linearly polarized sol iton states and the elliptically polarized soliton states are found to be unstable. This indicates that for high-capacity coherent soliton c ommunication in the femtosecond regime, the pulse must be launched alo ng either the slow or the fast axis of a practical polarization-mainta ining fiber. Finally, the potential applications of weakly unstable li nearly polarized soliton states for ultrafast soliton switching are di scussed. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.