Soliton generation from a multi-frequency optical signal

We present a comprehensive analysis of the generation of optical solitons in a monomode optical fiber from a superposition of soliton-like optical pulses at different frequencies. It is demonstrated that the structure of the emerging optical field is highly dependent on the number of input channels, the inter-channel frequency separation, the time shift between the pulses belonging to adjacent channels, and the polarization of the pulses. Also, it is found that there exists a critical frequency separation above which wavelength-division multiplexing with solitons is feasible and that this critical frequency increases with the number of transmission channels. Moreover, for the case in which only two channels are considered, we analyze the propagation of the emerging two-soliton solutions in the presence of several perturbations important for optical networks: bandwidth-limited amplification, nonlinear amplification, and amplitude and phase modulation. Finally, the influence of the birefringence of the fiber on the structure of the emerging optical field is discussed. (Author)