Abstract

When ultrashort optical pulses propagate in single-mode silica fibers, they are affected by both the chromatic dispersion and the Kerr-type nonlinearity intrinsic to the silica material. This paper reviews recent progress in understanding the pulse characteristics at the fiber output resulting from an interplay between the group-velocity dispersion and the nonlinearity-induced self-phase modulation. The evolution of the pulse shapes and spectra along the fiber length is studied numerically and compared with the experiments for normal (positive) and anomalous (negative) group-velocity dispersion. The case of vanishing group-velocity dispersion is also considered by including the higher-order dispersive effects. Particular attention is paid to the formation and propagation of solitons occurring in the anomalous dispersion regime of optical fibers.

© 1987 Optical Society of America