Cross-talk dynamics of optical solitons in a broadband Kerr nonlinear system with weak cubic loss

Abstract

We study the dynamics of fast soliton collisions in a Kerr nonlinear optical waveguide with weak cubic loss. We obtain analytic expressions for the amplitude and frequency shifts in a single two-soliton collision and show that the impact of a fast three-soliton collision is given by the sum of the two-soliton interactions. Our analytic predictions are confirmed by numerical simulations with the perturbed nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation. Furthermore, we show that the deterministic collision-induced dynamics of soliton amplitudes in a broadband waveguide system with $N$ frequency channels is described by a Lotka-Volterra model for $N$ competing species. For a two-channel system we find that stable transmission with equal prescribed amplitudes can be achieved by a proper choice of linear amplifier gain. The predictions of the Lotka-Volterra model are confirmed by numerical solution of a perturbed coupled-NLS model.