Wave-breaking-free pulses in nonlinear-optical fibers

Abstract

A qualitative as well as quantitative investigation is made of the conditions for avoiding wave breaking during pulse propagation in optical fibers. In particular, it is shown that pulses having a parabolic intensity variation are approximate wave-breaking-free solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation in the high-intensity limit. A simple expression for the compression factor of a fiber-grating compressor based on parabolic pulses is also derived.