Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 30: Poster: Photonics, laser development and applications, ultrashort laser pulses, quantum effects

Q 30.14: Poster

Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 16:30–18:30, Spree-Palais

A flexible testbed for studies of collisions between fiber-optic soliton molecules — •Maria Lubs, Philipp Rohrmann, Alexander Hause, and Fedor Mitschke — Universität Rostock, Institut für Physik, Universitätsplatz 3, 18051 Rostock

In fiber-optic data transmission systems using solitons in dispersion-managed (DM) fibers, multiple collisions between solitons in adjacent channels occur. Based on careful studies of such collisions ca. 15 years ago, detrimental effects can be avoided; solitons are now used in some commercial systems. Recently so-called soliton molecules – bound states of two or three (or potentially more) solitons in DM fibers – were suggested to further increase the data rate. Naturally, their behavior under collisions must also be investigated.

We introduce a testbed for such studies which is flexibly programmable, and avoids the need to use several laser sources. A pulse shaper (liquid crystal light modulator and two gratings) serves to carve two solitons or soliton molecules (as desired) at the same time from the same modelocked source, with center wavelength and timing differentials. These combinations are then sent down a fiber where collisions occur by virtue of fiber dispersion. By finetuning the wavelength differences, the location of the collision can be controlled. At the fiber end, the emerging pulse structures are analyzed using FROG.

We present preliminary experimental results, and outline how we plan to systematically investigate the impact of such collisions on solitons and soliton molecules. Experiments will be accompanied by numerical simulations.