Rogue wave formation by accelerated solitons at an optical event horizon

Rogue waves, by definition, are rare events of extreme amplitude, but at the same time they are frequent in the sense that they can exist in a wide range of physical contexts. While many mechanisms have been demonstrated to explain the appearance of rogue waves in various specific systems, there is no known generic mechanism or general set of criteria shown to rule their appearance. Presupposing only the existence of a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation together with a concave dispersion profile around a zero dispersion wavelength we demonstrate that solitons may experience acceleration and strong reshaping due to the interaction with continuum radiation, giving rise to extreme-value phenomena. The mechanism is independent of the optical Raman effect. A strong increase of the peak power is accompanied by a mild increase of the pulse energy and carrier frequency, whereas the photon number of the soliton remains practically constant. This reshaping mechanism is particularly robust and is naturally given in optics in the supercontinuum generation process

Rogue wave formation by accelerated solitons at an optical event horizon

Rogue waves, by definition, are rare events of extreme amplitude, but at the same time they are frequent in the sense that they can exist in a wide range of physical contexts. While many mechanisms have been demonstrated to explain the appearance of rogue waves in various specific systems, there is no known generic mechanism or general set of criteria shown to rule their appearance. Presupposing only the existence of a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation together with a concave dispersion profile around a zero dispersion wavelength we demonstrate that solitons may experience acceleration and strong reshaping due to the interaction with continuum radiation, giving rise to extreme-value phenomena. The mechanism is independent of the optical Raman effect. A strong increase of the peak power is accompanied by a mild increase of the pulse energy and carrier frequency, whereas the photon number of the soliton remains practically constant. This reshaping mechanism is particularly robust and is naturally given in optics in the supercontinuum generation process

Fiber optics: physics and technology

This book tells you all you want to know about optical fibers: Their structure, their light-guiding mechanism, their material and manufacture, their use. It began with telephone, then came telefax and email. Today we use search engines, music downloads and internet videos, all of which require shuffling of bits and bytes by the zillions. The key to all this is the conduit: the line which is designed to carry massive amounts of data at breakneck speed. In their data carrying capacity optical fiber lines beat all other technologies (copper cable, microwave beacons, satellite links) hands down, at least in the long haul; wireless devices rely on fibers, too. Several effects tend to degrade the signal as it travels down the fiber: they are spelled out in detail. Nonlinear processes are given due consideration for a twofold reason: On the one hand they are fundamentally different from the more familiar processes in electrical cable. On the other hand, they form the basis of particularly interesting and innovative applications, provided they are understood well enough. A case in point is the use of so-called solitons, i.e. special pulses of light which have the wonderful property of being able to heal after perturbation. The book will take you from the physical basics of ray and beam optics, explain fiber structure and the functions of optical elements, and bring you to the forefront of both applications and research. The state of the art of high speed data transmission is described, and the use of fiber optic sensors in metrology is treated. The book is written in a pedagogical style so that students of both physics and electrical engineering, as well as technicians and engineers involved in optical technologies, will benefit. The new edition is largely updated and has new sections on nonlinear phenomena in fibers as well as on the latest trends in applications

Fiber Optics: Physics and Technology

Telephone, telefax, email and internet -- the key ingredient of the inner workings is the conduit: the line which is designed to carry massive amounts of data at breakneck speed. In their data-carrying capacity optical fiber lines beat other technologies (copper cable, microwave beacons, satellite links) hands down, at least in the long haul. This book tells you all you want to know about optical fibers: Their structure, their light-guiding mechanism, their material and manufacture, their use. Several effects tend to degrade the signal as it travels down the fiber: they are spelled out in detail. Nonlinear processes are given due consideration for a twofold reason: On the one hand they are fundamentally different from the more familiar processes in electrical cable. On the other hand, they form the basis of particularly interesting and innovative applications, provided they are understood well enough. A case in point is the use of so-called solitons, i.e. special pulses of light which have the wonderful property of being able to heal after perturbation. The book will take you from the physical basics of ray and beam optics, explain fiber structure and the functions of optical elements, and bring you to the forefront of applications. The state of the art of high speed data transmission will be described, and the use of fiber optic sensors in metrology is treated. The book is written in a pedagogical style so that students of both physics and electrical engineering, as well as technicians and engineers involved in optical technologies, will benefit. Prof. Fedor Mitschke, a German physicist, was involved in pioneering work on fiber-optic solitons at Bell Laboratories in 1985-86. He has held teaching positions at universities in Hannover, Munich, Munster, and Rostock (all in Germany). Since 1997 he holds the chair for optics at the Institute of Physics at Rostock University. This book grew out of lectures he gave at Hannover, Munster, Rostock, and as visiting professor in Lule, Sweden

Soliton molecules for advanced optical telecommunications

Recent developments in the technology of optical telecommunications are pushed forward by the rapidly growing demand for data-carrying capacity. Current approaches are discussed; most lines of investigation are limited to the linear (i.e. low power) regime. It is shown how this restriction poses a limit for further evolution. If, on the other hand, the nonlinear regime is entered, recent developments about soliton molecules offer a possibility to advance further

Nonlinear control: Bistability with modulated input

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Soliton Content of Fiber-Optic Light Pulses

This is a review of fiber-optic soliton propagation and of methods to determine the soliton content in a pulse, group of pulses or a similar structure. Of central importance is the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, an integrable equation that possesses soliton solutions, among others. Several extensions and generalizations of this equation are customary to better approximate real-world systems, but this comes at the expense of losing integrability. Depending on the experimental situation under discussion, a variety of pulse shapes or pulse groups can arise. In each case, the structure will contain one or several solitons plus small amplitude radiation. Direct scattering transform, also known as nonlinear Fourier transform, serves to quantify the soliton content in a given pulse structure, but it relies on integrability. Soliton radiation beat analysis does not suffer from this restriction, but has other limitations. The relative advantages and disadvantages of the methods are compared

On the Creation of Solitons in Amplifying Optical Fibers

We treat the creation of solitons in amplifying fibers. Strictly speaking, solitons are objects in an integrable setting while in real-world systems loss and gain break integrability. That case usually has been treated in the perturbation limit of low loss or gain. In a recent approach fiber-optic solitons were described beyond that limit, so that it became possible to specify how and where solitons are eventually destroyed. Here we treat the opposite case: in the presence of gain, new solitons can arise from an initially weak pulse. We find conditions for that to happen for both localized and distributed gain, with no restriction to small gain. By tracing the energy budget we show that even when another soliton is already present and copropagates, a newly created soliton takes its energy from radiation only. Our results may find applications in amplified transmission lines or in fiber lasers