Transmission of stationary nonlinear optical pulses in dispersive

dielectric fibers. I. Anomalous dispersion

Akira Hasegawa and Frederick Tappert
Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
(Received 12 April 1973)
Theoretical calculations supported by numerical simulations show that utilization of the nonlinear
dependence of the index of refraction on intensity makes possible the transmission of picosecond
optical pulses without distortion in dielectric fiber waveguides with group velocity dispersion. In the
case of anomalous dispersion (3'2wj3k"2 >0) discussed here [the case of normal dispersion
(3
2
wj3k
2
<0) will be discussed in a succeeding letter), the stationary pulse is a "bright" pulse, or
envelope soliton. For a typical glass fiber guide, the balancing power required to produce a
stationary I-ps pulse is approximately I W. Numerical simulations show that above a certain
threshold power level such pulses are stable under the influence of small perturbations, large
perturbations, white noise, or absorption.
In this letter (I) and a succeeding one (II), 1 we dis-
cuss a method of transmitting short optical pulses in a
dielectric fiber waveguide in the presence of group
velOCity dispersion which is either anomalous (I) or
normal (II). A critical limitation in realizing the full-
bandwidth capability of optical transmission systems is
pulse distortion due to dispersive spreading.
2
To over-
come this difficulty, we propose to utilize the nonlinear
dependence of the index of refraction on intensity3 that
is intrinsic to glass and other dielectric materials em-
ployed in presently existing optical fibers. In a medium
with cubic nonlinearity, the index of refraction is given
by
where no'" 1. 5 and n2'" 3 xl0-
22
(V /mt2 for Si0
2
, and X
represents the dielectric loss.
(1)
We express the transverse electric field intensity in
the following form:
E(x, r, t) = R(r) Re {cp(x, t) exp[i(koX - wof)]}, (2)
where R(r) is a radial eigenfunction, 4 x is the longitudi-
nal coordinate along the axis of the fiber, and cko
= wono(w
o
). Assuming that the complex amplitude func-
tion cp(x, t) varies slowly compared to the carrier and
that the nonlinear and dispersion effects are weak, we
may integrate over the radial coordinate r and obtain
the following one -dimensional equations describing the
dynamical evolution of the envelope:
.(acp + Wi acp + v cp\ + l.w" a
2
cp + awOn2 I cp 12cp = 0 (3)
Z at 0 ax 0 ') 2 0 ax2 no '
where aWn/ako, w; = a2wo/akL vo= X(wo)wo/no, and
O! is a numerical factor of the order of unity which de-
pends on the radial variation of the guided electric
field.
6
In Eq. (3), the second term describes the enve-
lope propagation with group velocity (in the absence
of the rest of the terms), the third term describes the
effect of absorption, the fourth term describes the ef-
fect of dispersion, and the fifth term describes the ef-
fect of nonlinearity.
If the absorption is small and the nonlinear term can
be made comparable to the dispersion term, one can
expect to obtain a significant modification of the pulse
shape. The shape of the expected stationary solution,
however, should be different depending on the sign of
If w; > 0, because n2 is positive, the dispersion term
142 Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 23, No.3, 1 August 1973
can be balanced by the nonlinear term if (a2cp/ax2)cp-1< 0,
i. e., if the pulse shape is convex upward, while, if
w; < 0, balancing occurs when the pulse shape is con-
cave upward. In fact, when > 0 (anomalous dispersion)
and n2 > 0 and if the dissipative term Vo is zero, Eq. (3)
admits a unique family of exact solutions under the con-
straint that the solution be localized and stationary 7:
(
t - t [
cp(x, t) = E$ sech oro tr) exp i(KX - Ot)] , (4)
where E. (the maximum field intensity), 1'0 (the pulse
half-width), 0 (the frequency shift), K (the wavenumber
shift), and Vg (the transmission speed of the pulse) are
related through 0 = + - Vg =
+ and and to is the pulse
center. Note that the carrier wave number is modified
to k
e
= ko + K, and the carrier frequency is modified to
wc= Wo + + - O!won2E.2/2nO' Also note that any
two of these parameters (E., 1'0, 0, K, and v
g
) are in-
dependent parameters and can be chosen arbitrarily by
the initial condition. The last term in this expression
for we is the nonlinear frequency shift, and the other
terms simply describe the frequency displacement
corresponding to the wave number displacement K.
Equation (4) is a generalized form of the previously
known particular solutionS and is similar to the one ob-
tained recently by a different technique. 9
For a stationary pulse of half -width 1'0, the peak
power p. corresponding to the amplitude E. is given by
(mks units)
P -l.n 'Ii'.::l!. s- 0 n i S

)1/2 n2w" ( )1/2

$ - 2 ()'-'. /J.o - /J.o
_ 10
7
S (/J.m2) I
- 2 2
47T (foro) Vg afo
(5)
Let us consider the following nominal values of the mate-
rial and pulse parameters: no= 1. 5, nz=3XIO-
22
(V/mr
2
,
O! = 1. 0, 1'0= 3 ps, fo= W
o
/27T= 4xl0
14
Hz, S= 10 /J.m2,
(fo/vg)(avg/afo) = 5xl0-
2
Equation (5) then gives p. '" 90
mW, a rather modest power and well within the capabil-
ities of available lasers. The power level required to
balance other pulse widths scales like ri/ and depends
on the other material parameters in accordance with
Eq. (5).
Direct numerical solutions of Eq. (3) have been ob-
tained using the recently developed split-step Fourier
Copyright 1973 American Institute of Physics 142
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143
A. Hasegawa and F. Tappert: Nonlinear optical pulses I. Anomalous dispersion
143
+30
Cil
.So
QJ"
S

-30
+30
Cil
..&


(a)
(b)
0.0 Distance, x (km) 1.8
FIG. 1. Comparison of linear (a) and stationary nonlinear (b)
propagation of 3-ps optical pulses in glass fibers.
algorithm. 10 The essence of this method is to alternate-
ly advance the solution by representing the linear terms
in Fourier space and the nonlinear term in coordinate
space. The starting electric field was taken to be one
or more pulses of the form
(6)
Contour plots of 1 rp (x, t) 12 in the x - t plane are presented
using the above nominal values, but of course the scal-
ing laws obtained from Eq. (3) are fully known and can
be used to rescale the plots for other values of material
and pulse parameters. In all the numerical simulations
presented here, a periodic pulse train was used with
period equal to 20r 0, and the calculations were carried
to a distance 19. or 1. 8 km under the nominal
conditions. The spacing between contours is O. 1 times
the initial peak power F. These contour plots should be
interpreted as follows: At a distance x along the fiber,
the observed pulse shape is given as a function of time
t by reading upward at constant x.
Figure 1 shows a comparison between the dispersive
spreading of linear pulses (F Fa) and the stationary
form of nonlinear pulses (F=F.). In Fig. l(a) we see
Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 23, No.3, 1 August 1973
+30 '
Cil
..&


-30
+30
Cil
..&
.
Eo<
- 30 :
+ 30
0.0
(a)
(b)
(c)
Distance, x (km)
1.8
FIG. 2. Stability of stationary nonlinear pulses under the
actions of (a) noise, (b) absorption, and (c) large perturbation.
that linear pulses spread at a rate of about 20 ps/km
between 0.1 and 1. 0 km, and then begin to overlap and
interfere with each other. In contrast, the nonlinear
pulses without absorption are indeed stationary and do
not spread or overlap, as shown in Fig. 1(b).
In Fig. 2, we present some examples of computer
runs which illustrate the remarkable stability of these
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144 A. Hasegawa and F. Tappert: Nonlinear optical pulses I. Anomalous dispersion 144
envelope solitons. Figure 2(a) shows the effect of white
noise (2% rms) added to the electric field, and Fig. 2(b)
shows the effect of absorption (2.4 dB/km). In neither
case does the pulse spread significantly in the computed
distance. In Fig. 2(c), the behavior of a pulse with
P /p. = 2 is shown. It oscillates in a stable manner about
the stationary pulse. Other numerical experiments
have shown that pulses with P/P.> O. 5 do not spread,
and this threshold has also been derived theoretically.
At p/p.= 4. 0 we have observed periodic oscillations of
the pulse as predicted by Zakharov and Shabat. 9
Valuable discussions with T. Taniuti (Nagoya Univer-
sity), M. Duguay, D. Gloge, J.A. Giordmaine, and
R. H. Hardin are greatly appreciated.
lAo Hasegawa and F. Tappert, Appl. Phys. Lett. (to be published).
2C. Gloge, AppJ. Opt. 10,2442 (1971).
Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 23, No.3, 1 August 1973
3R. Y. Chiao, E. Garmire, and C. H. Townes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 13,479
(1964). For fused quartz, n 2 is caused by the electronic Kerr effect
which has a response time of about 1 O - 1 ~ s.
'The normalization of R is taken to be fa R2(r)27rrdr=S, where
S is the geometrical cross-sectional area.
5y. I. Karpman and E. N. Krushkal, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 55, 530
(1968) [Sov. Phys.-JETP 28, 277 (1969)]; T. Taniuti and N. Yajima,
J. Math. Phys. (to be published). For the guided mode, the derivation
is somewhat intricate and will be published elsewhere. See also J. W.
Van Dam, Nagoya University Institute of Plasma Physics Report No.
PPSI36, 1972 (unpublished).
6For example, for the HEll mode this factor is given by
all "'4 J10 x [/0 (p;X)
4
dx/ [II (PI) -2, where 10 and II are Bessel
functions and P I is the first root of 1
0
,
7 A. Hasegawa and F. D. Tappert (unpublished).
aV. J. Karpman, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. Pis'ma Red. 6, 829 (1967) [JETP
Lett. 6, 277 (1967)); L. A. Ostrovskii, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 51,1189
(1966) [Sov. Phys.-JETP 24, 797 (1967) .
9y. E. Zakharov and A. B. Shabat, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 61, 118 (1971)
[Sov. Phys.-JETP 34, 62 (1972).
1F. D. Tappert and C. N. Judice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 1308 (1972); R.
H. Hardin and F. D. Tappert, SIAM Rev. (Soc. Ind. Appl. Math.) 15,
423 (1973).
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