Short optical solitons in fibers

The dynamics of short (of the order of a few wave periods) intense optical pulses and interaction of short optical solitons in fibers are considered within the framework of the third-order nonlinear Schrodinger equation. It is shown that an initial pulse tends to one or a few short solitons plus a linear quasiperiodic wave when the third-order linear dispersion and nonlinear dispersion have parameters of the same sign. The number and parameters of the solitons depend on the magnitudes of initial pulse parameters. Interaction of short optical solitons having different amplitudes is accompanied by radiation of part of the wave field from the area of interaction, by an increase of the soliton with larger amplitude, and a decrease of the soliton with a smaller one. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.