Effect of Fourth-Order Dispersion on Solitonic Interactions

Abstract

Solitons became important in optical communication systems thanks to their robust nature. However, the interaction of solitons is considered as a bad effect. To avoid interactions, the obvious solution is to respect the temporal separation between two adjacent solitons determined as a bit rate. Nevertheless, many better solutions exist to decrease the bit rate error. In this context, the aim of our work is to study the possibility to delete the interaction of adjacent solitons, by using a special dispersion management system, precisely by introducing both of the third- and fourth-order dispersions in the presence of a group velocity dispersion. To study the influence of the fourth- and third-order dispersions, we use the famous non-linear Schr¨odinger equation solved with the Fast Fourier Transform method. The originality of this work is to bring together the dispersion of the fourth, third, and second orders to separate two solitons close enough to create the Kerr-induced interaction and consequently to improve the propagation by decreasing the bit rate error. This study illustrates the influence of the fourth-order dispersion on one single soliton and two co-propagative solitons with different values of the temporal separation. Then the third order dispersion is introduced in the presence of the fourth-order dispersion in the propagation of one and two solitons in order to study its influence on the interaction. Finally, we show the existence of a precise dispersion management system that allows one to avoid the interaction of solitons.