Femtosecond soliton propagation in fibers with slowly decreasing dispersion

Abstract

We obtain the adiabatic compression of femtosecond solitons in fibers with slowly decreasing dispersion (FSDD’s) and discover the effect of soliton pulse-width stabilization in FSDD’s. A theoretical model for the description of femtosecond-pulse propagation in FSDD’s is presented. The model takes into account higher-order nonlinear and dispersive effects in fibers. We present numerical simulations of a generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the adiabatic soliton approximation theory as well. Good quantitative agreement between the theory and the experiments is seen. The effect of soliton pulse-width stabilization in FSDD’s is described as a result of the combined action of the third-order dispersion and Raman self-scattering effects. We also show the possibility of obtaining high-quality pulses with less than a 15-fs pulse width in the 1.6-μm spectral region by soliton compression in FSDD’s.