Long-range interaction of picosecond solitons through excitation of acoustic waves in optical fibers

We present the theory of electrostrictional interaction of soliton pulses in optical fibers. Solitons excite acoustic waves propagating in the direction transverse to the fiber axis. Scattering of optical radiation on these waves leads to a timing jitter of the optical pulses arrival time. We consider this effect as nonlinear self-scattering of light on acoustic waves. Because of the fact that a value of acoustic lifetime can reach a value of about 100 ns self-scattering on acoustic waves can be observed for a single optical pulse as well as for an optical pulse sequence as a whole. The value of single soliton self-frequency shift due to excitation of acoustic waves as a function of soliton duration have been obtained. For soliton duration _sol > 14 ps an acoustic wave soliton self-frequency shift is larger than the Raman soliton self-frequency shift.The obtained theoretical results describe well the long-range interaction of soliton pulse trains in an optical fiber. The value of bit error rate due to electrostrictional interaction of optical pulses in high bit rate, ultra long soliton communication systems have been obtained.