Bistable dependence of the efficiency of second harmonic generation on the total energy of femtosecond soliton pulses propagating in an optical fiber

Taking into account the effect of cubic nonlinearity on the process of second harmonic generation by soliton-like femtosecond pulses results in a hysteresis dependence of the generation efficiency, the pulse durations, and the mismatch of the wave numbers of the interacting waves on their total energy. Color solitons with earlier unknown shapes are formed at a high efficiency of the frequency conversion. Varying the phase mismatch makes it possible to “switch” the soliton duration and the conversion efficiency without a change in the total energy of the waves or the soliton shape. It is emphasized that the soliton corresponding to the middle branch of the hysteresis dependence is stable against small perturbations. It is significant that the soliton shape remains unchanged in the considered range of energies.