Self-similar propagation region in passive optical fibers based on low-order approximation

For the first time, we numerically demonstrate that similaritons in passive fibers can only propagate with parabolic profile without oscillations in a limited self-similar propagation region when low-order approximation is applied. Dispersion-decreasing fiber (DDF) and nonlinearity increasing fiber (NIF) are used here to generate self-similar pulse in different passive ways. Moreover, we put forward several self-similar features to judge effective similariton propagation and determine self-similar region by numerical simulations and waveform observation. Finally we compare in DDF and NIF the dependence of these regions on incident pulse and fiber parameters in order to obtain parabolic similariton more effectively and steadily. These results extend the low-order propagation properties in passive fibers and are beneficial for the generation of high-quality similariton pulse by parameter selection in experimental studies and practical applications.