Spatial solitons in Kerr and Kerr-like media

This is a review paper of basic knowledge and recent advances in the area of spatial solitons in Kerr and Kerr-like media. We consider spatial bright and dark solitons, solitons in waveguide geometries, optical bullets, vortex solitons and, briefly, dissipative cases. In our treatment, we use a Hamiltonian approach when considering stability issues.     

Rogue waves and solitons on a cnoidal background

Solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, appearing as rogue waves on a spatially-periodic background envelope, are obtained using the Darboux transformation scheme. Several particular examples are illustrated numerically. These include soliton and breather solutions on a periodic background as well as higher-order structures. The results enrich our knowledge of possible analytic solutions that describe the appearance of rogue waves in a variety of situations. This work is prepared on the occasion of Prof. Helmut Brand's 60th birthday. He has made significant contributions to the science of solitons and his ideas have inspired our research into localised formations in various physical contexts.     

Soliton as strange attractor: nonlinear synchronization and chaos

We show that dissipative solitons can have dynamics similar to that of a strange attractor in low-dimensional systems. Using a model of a passively mode-locked fiber laser as an example, we show that soliton pulsations with periods equal to several round-trips of the cavity can be chaotic, even though they are synchronized with the round-trip time. The chaotic part of this motion is quantified using a two-dimensional map and estimating the Lyapunov exponent. We found a specific route to chaotic motion that occurs through the creation, increase, and overlap of "islands" of chaos rather than through multiplication of frequencies.     

Dissipative solitons and antisolitons

Using the method of moments for dissipative optical solitons, we show that there are two disjoint sets of fixed points. These correspond to stationary solitons of the complex cubic–quintic Ginzburg–Landau equation with concave and convex phase profiles respectively. Numerical simulations confirm the predictions of the method of moments for the existence of two types of solutions which we call solitons and antisolitons. Their characteristics are distinctly different.     

Modulation instability of a continuous signal in an optical fiber taking into account third-order dispersion

Moscow Institute of Electronics. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 111–117, January, 1990.     

Spectral dynamics of modulation instability described using Akhmediev breather theory

The Akhmediev breather formalism of modulation instability is extended to describe the spectral dynamics of induced multiple sideband generation from a modulated continuous wave field. Exact theoretical results describing the frequency domain evolution are compared with experiments performed using single mode fiber around 1550 nm. The spectral theory is shown to reproduce the depletion dynamics of an injected modulated continuous wave pump and to describe the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence and recovery towards the initial state. Realistic simulations including higher-order dispersion, loss, and Raman scattering are used to identify that the primary physical factors that preclude perfect recurrence are related to imperfect initial conditions.