Abstract

In 1973, Hasegawa and Tappert predicted that the nonlinear refractive index of silica fibers can compensate for Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD), resulting in the so-called optical solitons which propagate without distortion.^1,2 Both "bright" and "dark" solitons were identified that correspond to the negative and positive GVD regions of the spectrum, respectively. Since then, owing to their potential applications in high bit-rate fiber telecommunication systems, optical solitons have been intensively investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Soliton propagation of bright pulses has been verified in a large number of experiments and the possibility of its application in long haul fiber transmission has been demonstrated.

© 1991 Optical Society of America