Dissipative solitons in active Bragg gratings

Motionless and moving bright dissipative solitons in an optical fiber with a Bragg grating and non-linear amplification and absorption are found numerically and studied. These solitons form a one-parameter family whose parameter—the soliton velocity—can continuously change in a certain range. The presence of saturation of the nonlinearity is necessary for stability of such solitons. Neglect of saturation of the cubic-in-field polarization of the medium results in the instability of the possible localized structures.     

Collision Dynamics of Dissipative Matter-Wave Solitons in a Perturbed Optical Lattice

We investigate the stability and collision dynamics of dissipative matter-wave solitons formed in a quasi-onedimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with linear gain and three-body recombination loss perturbed by a weak optical lattice.It is shown that the linear gain can modify the stability of the single dissipative soliton moving in the optical lattice.The collision dynamics of two individual dissipative matter-wave solitons explicitly depend on the linear gain parameter,and they display different dynamical behaviors in both the in-phase and out-of-phase interaction regimes.     

Spatiotemporal discrete Ginzburg-Landau solitons in two-dimensional photonic lattices

In the framework of the continuous-discrete cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau model, spatiotemporal dissipative solitons which are highly confined inside two-dimensional photonic lattices are found numerically. The domains of existence in the relevant parameter space, of in-phase (unstaggered) on-site (single-peaked), inter-site (double-peaked), and flat-top-like (four-peaked) spatiotemporal dissipative solitons are determined. We show that the on-site solitons are stable in the whole domain of their existence and we find the stability domains of both inter-site and flat-top-like solitons. We describe the complex instability-induced scenarios of the dynamics of spatiotemporal discrete Ginzburg-Landau solitons in two-dimensional photonic lattices.     

Exploding dissipative solitons in the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation in one and two spatial dimensions

We review the work on exploding dissipative solitons in one and two spatial dimensions. Features covered include: the transition from modulated to exploding dissipative solitons, the analogue of the Ruelle-Takens scenario for dissipative solitons, inducing exploding dissipative solitons by noise, two classes of exploding dissipative solitons in two spatial dimensions, diffusing asymmetric exploding dissipative solitons as a model for a two-dimensional extended chaotic system. As a perspective we outline the interaction of exploding dissipative solitons with quasi one-dimensional dissipative solitons, breathing quasi one-dimensional solutions and their possible connection with experimental results on convection, and the occurence of exploding dissipative solitons in reaction-diffusion systems. It is a great pleasure to dedicate this work to our long-time friend Hans (Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Herrmann) on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

Regular and stochastic motion of dissipative optical solitons

Investigations of the motion of dissipative optical solitons and their complexes in wide-aperture nonlinearly optical (with coherent pump radiation) and laser (with incoherent pump radiation) systems have been reviewed. An important characteristic of dissipative solitons is the topology of the energy fluxes, which determines the internal structure of individual solitons and makes it possible to certainly separate the cases of the weak and strong interactions between the solitons. It has been shown that the character of the regular motion of dissipative soliton structures in a homogeneous system is determined by the symmetry of the transverse distributions of the intensity and energy flux; the motion of asymmetric structures is curvilinear. This is also valid for complexes of three-dimensional dissipative optical solitons, “laser bullets.” The extreme possibilities of localization of solitons are determined by quantum noises. The corresponding Brownian motion of the center of the dissipative optical soliton is characterized by a much lower level of the statistic dispersion of the coordinates of its center and velocity than that in the case of conservative solitons.     

Conservative and dissipative fiber Bragg solitons (a review)

We present a comparative review of two classes of optical solitons—conservative and dissipative solitons—propagating in single-mode optical fibers in which refractive-index gratings are induced such that their period is comparable with the radiation wavelength. Fibers that have the Kerr nonlinearity and negligibly small losses and that do not gain radiation (conservative system) are described by traditional equations of the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes, and effects caused by the nonlinearity of the medium, such as nonlinear switching, optical bistability, and formation of conservative Bragg solitons are considered. It is shown that the passage beyond the scope of the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes makes it possible to describe new important effects, including localization of soliton centers near maxima of the refractive-index grating. Bright and dark conservative solitons are demonstrated, which are formed when the Kerr nonlinearity is replaced by the nonlinearity of two-level atomic systems. The properties of conservative solitons in resonance semiconductor Bragg structures with quantum wells are considered. Results of experimental studies of nonlinear effects in fibers with Bragg gratings are presented. For an active single-mode fiber with a Bragg refractive-index grating and nonlinear gain and absorption, dissipative solitons are described using the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes and inertialess nonlinearity. It is shown that the dissipative factors qualitatively change the properties of solitons compared to the conservative case. Using the Maxwell-Bloch equations, it is demonstrated that the ratio between the gain and absorption relaxation times significantly affects the stability of localized structures. The interaction of dissipative optical Bragg solitons is described. It is shown that, beyond the scope of the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes, the average velocity of propagating dissipative Bragg solitons acquires only discrete values, and formation of pairs of solitons with two values of the phase difference becomes possible. For a birefringent fiber, dissipative vector optical Bragg solitons are demonstrated.     

Dissipative discrete spatial optical solitons in a system of coupled optical fibers with the Kerr and resonance nonlinearities

The propagation of monochromatic radiation in a system of weakly coupled single-mode optical fibers with saturable amplification and absorption and Kerr nonlinearity of the refractive index is analyzed. Conditions of stability and bistability of plane-wave regimes are determined. Discrete dissipative optical solitons are found and their stability is studied. The hysteresis dependences of the peak intensity of the discrete solitons on the value of the Kerr nonlinearity and the input beam intensity are demonstrated. The numerical estimates of the parameters of the spatial dissipative discrete solitons are presented.     

Clusters of three-dimensional laser solitons and their collisions

A new class of clusters of three-dimensional dissipative inphase-and antiphase-coupled solitons is numerically found in a laser system with a saturable absorber. The orientation of clusters and their motion depend on the symmetry of spatiotemporal characteristic of the system and on the symmetry of arrangement of solitons in the cluster. An example of a nonplanar (spiral-like) trajectory of the center of a seven-soliton cluster possessing no symmetry elements is demonstrated. Collisions of moving soliton clusters, including those accompanied by exchange of solitons between clusters, are studied. Experimentally, three-dimensional dissipative optical solitons can be realized in a laser amplifier with a saturable absorber or in an extended resonator filled with a medium with nonlinear gain and absorption.     

Dissipative solitons of the Bose-Einstein condensate of excitons

A mirrorless scheme for forming dissipative solitons has been proposed. It consists of a thin layer of a nonlinear medium excited by coherent laser radiation. The existence of dark dissipative solitons of the Bose-Einstein condensate of excitons in such a semiconductor film has been numerically demonstrated. The sizes of an excition soliton and required laser-radiation level are two orders of magnitude smaller than the respective quantities for the case of optical dissipative solitons.     

Complex Dynamics of Optical Solitons Interacting with Nanoparticles

JETP Letters - The mutual interactions of the dissipative optical solitons with trapped nanoparticles are studied. It is shown that the attraction of the nanoparticles to the solitons can result in...     

On conservative and dissipative solitons in media with a periodic spatial modulation

A comparative theoretical analysis of properties of conservative and dissipative optical solitons in media with a periodic spatial modulation of optical characteristics is performed. It is shown that, in the case of modulation in the longitudinal (with respect to the axis of predominant propagation) direction, the mechanism of decay of conservative solitons because of the delocalization of their Fourier harmonics takes place, whereas, for dissipative solitons, this mechanism is absent. In the case of modulation in the transverse direction, the presence of discrete dissipative solitons in a set of optical fibers with nonlinear (saturable) amplification and absorption is shown, which, to a considerable extent, are similar to conservative discrete solitons.     

Two-dimensional laser soliton complexes with weak, strong, and mixed coupling

A review is given of features and motion of two-dimensional dissipative solitons in lasers and laser amplifiers with saturable absorption. We present a rich variety of stable complexes with weak, strong, and mixed coupling of individual laser solitons. The type of coupling is determined by the topology of the distribution of energy flows within the complex. We reveal the existence of stable dissipative soliton complexes with curvilinear motion of their centre of mass. This type of motion results from the field distribution asymmetry and is well pronounced for complexes of laser solitons with strong and mixed types of coupling. Similar complexes are expected to exist in different spatially distributed nonlinear dissipative systems, including schemes with discrete dissipative solitons. PACS 42.65.Tg     

Formation of nonclassical states of vortex solitons in optical fibers with quantum dots

The problem of control for the quantum statistics of dissipative vortex optical solitons when using the Raman scheme of spin-flip transitions in an optical fiber doped with narrow-bandgap semiconductor quantum dots is considered. The possibility of forming individual bounded nonclassical quadrature squeezed light regions appearing within the spatial profile of a formed vortex soliton is demonstrated.     

Disintegration of a soliton in a dispersion-managed optical communication line with random parameters

The propagation of dispersion-managed solitons in optical fiber links with a random dispersion map has been studied. Two types of randomness are considered:random dispersion magnitudes and random lengths of the spans. By numerical simulations, disintegration of a soliton propagating in such an optical communication line is shown to occur. It is observed that the stability of the soliton propagation is affected more by modulations of the dispersion magnitudes of the spans than by modulations of the span lengths. Results of numerical simulations of the soliton breakup distance confirm theoretical predictions in the averaged dynamics limit.     

Generation of stable multi-vortex clusters in a dissipative medium with anti-cubic nonlinearity

We demonstrate the generation of vortex solitons in a model of dissipative optical media with the singular anti-cubic (AC) nonlinearity, by launching a vorticity-carrying Gaussian input into the medium modeled by the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. The effect of the AC term on the beam propagation is investigated in detail. An analytical result is produced for the asymptotic form of fundamental and vortical solitons at the point of $r\to 0$, which is imposed by the AC term. Numerical simulations identify parameter domains that maintain stable dissipative solitons in the form of vortex clusters. The number of vortices in the clusters is equal to the vorticity embedded in the Gaussian input.     

Curvilinear motion of laser soliton complexes

Conditions under which the center of inertia of stable complexes of dissipative optical solitons moves curvilinearly have been determined. Such a character of the motion of dissipative structures is caused by asymmetry in the distribution of the intensity and energy fluxes, and it is pronounced for laser solitons with strong interaction. The results of the numerical simulation of these complexes in the model of surface emitting lasers or laser amplifiers with saturated amplification and absorption are presented. Such complexes may be observed in various spatially distributed nonlinear dissipative systems, in particular, in the form of discrete solitons.     

On the regime of trapping of optical fiber solitons by a control signal

A scheme of trapping of temporal solitons by a moving grating induced in an optical fiber by external radiation is proposed. Prospects for using the scheme to increase the capacity and the range of data transmission with the help of dissipative solitons are discussed.     

Dissipative photonic lattice solitons

We show that discrete dissipative optical lattice solitons are possible in waveguide array configurations that involve periodically patterned semiconductor optical amplifiers and saturable absorbers. The characteristics of these low-power soliton states are investigated, and their propagation constant eigenvalues are mapped on Floquet-Bloch band diagrams. The prospect of observing such low-power dissipative lattice solitons is discussed in detail.     

All-fiber erbium-doped dissipative soliton laser with multimode interference based on saturable-reserve saturable hybrid optical switch

Reverse saturable absorption is essential for the realization of dissipative solitons. In this paper, we introduce reverse saturable absorption by using nonlinear multimode interference (NL-MMI), for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, and obtain a stable dissipative soliton operation. By adjusting the coupling efficiency from multimode fiber to single mode fiber, the absorption properties of NL-MMI can be switched between saturation and reverse saturation. The dissipative soliton can be obtained with pulse width of 975 fs in the experiment, the 3-dB bandwidth at 1555 nm is 16 nm, and the maximum output power is 11.48 mW. The nonlinear absorption optical modulation and high damage threshold characteristics of the NL-MMI based ultrafast optical switch provide a new idea for realizing dissipative solitons.     

Cascade compression induced by nonlinear barriers in propagation of optical solitons

We investigate the nonlinear tunneling of optical solitons through both dispersion and nonlinear barriers by employing the exact solution of the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation with variable coefficients. The extensive numerical simulations show that the optical solitons can be efficiently compressed when they pass through adequate engineered nonlinear barriers. A cascade compression system in a dispersion decreasing fiber with nonlinear barriers on an exponential background is proposed and the cascade compression of optical pulses is further investigated in detail. Finally, the stability to various initial perturbations of the cascade compressed optical soliton and the interaction between two neighboring compressed solitons were investigated too.