On the All-Fiber Optical Methods of the Generation and Recognition of Soliton States

Abstract

The state of a soliton is characterized by the eigenvalues of the Zakharov–Shabat problem. The data transfer rate in the fiber-optic communication lines that use eigenvalues for coding signals can be significantly increased only by developing optical eigenvalue control methods. We propose to use optical fibers with a sinusoidally changing dispersion to generate given sets of complex eigenvalues and to detect soliton states. Under the action of a periodic change in dispersion, multisoliton pulses divide into several solitons moving at different group velocities. This effect can be used to prepare fixed sets of eigenvalues. A soliton signal can be recognized by analyzing pulses and their spectra at the exit from a fiber with a periodically changing dispersion. Using the solitons specified by sets of four eigenvalues, we show that the field at the exit from a fiber corresponds to a unique combination of the spectrum and the number of pulses determined by initial eigenvalues.