Abstract

The past several decades of development of nonlinear optics clearly demonstrated an important role playing by universal nonlinear models. Simply formulated, but, at the same time, rich in content, the models such as the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the sine-Gordon equation, the system describing three-wave resonant interaction, and others occur in a wide variety of different physical systems. These models have much in common. All of them are based on nonlinear equations that possess stable soliton solutions. In recent years the dynamics of soliton pulses in these basic models and their numerous generalizations has been a subject of extensive investigations. The using of the nonlinear effects in optical devices has allowed the demonstration such applications of the solitons as the pulse compression, the soliton laser, long-distance soliton transmission through high-bit-rate communication systems, soliton amplification in erbium doped fibers, etc (see, e.g., [1]). From a general point of view, most of the applications of the above-mentioned and related to them models are based on such a property of nonlinear systems as the possibility of a stable soliton dynamics.

© 1993 Optical Society of America