Elements of optical solitons: an overview

Abstract

Existence of solitons in nonlinear optical fibres was first predicted by Hasegawa and Tappert in 1973 and its experimental verification came in 1980. Ever since, both experimental and theoretical physicists have shown keen interest in this topic due to its versatile applications. Optical solitons are formed due to the balance between the group velocity dispersion and the self phase modulation in the anomalous dispersion regime, and the governing wave equation is the Nonlinear Schröddinger (NLS) equation. Optical solitons can exist in various systems like photonic crystal fibres, bulk materials like photorefractive materials, photopolymers, etc. What follows is an introduction to optical soiltons and their applications