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Dissipative Solitons in a Waveguide with Nonlinear Gain and Absorption

Article in Optics and Spectroscopy · January 2000

DOI: 10.1134/1.626879

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Optics and Spectroscopy, Vol. 88, No. 5, 2000, pp. 790–791. Translated from Optika i Spektroskopiya, Vol. 88, No. 5, 2000, pp. 869–870.
Original Russian Text Copyright © 2000 by Rozanov, Fedorov, Khodova.

PHYSICAL
AND QUANTUM OPTICS

Dissipative Solitons in a Waveguide

with Nonlinear Gain and Absorption
N. N. Rozanov, S. V. Fedorov, and G. V. Khodova
Research Institute of Laser Physics, St. Petersburg, 199034 Russia
Received November 5, 1999

Abstract—The results of numerical analysis of dissipative localized structures (“dissitons”) in a single-mode

waveguide with nonlinear gain and absorption are presented. An allowance is made for the finite relaxation
times in the active and passive media and the finite width of the spectral profiles of absorption and gain. © 2000
MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”.

INTRODUCTION and more important factor. Manifestations of the inertia

Temporal optical solitons in single-mode waveguides
with a nonlinear refractive index [1] allow one to realize
the propagation of short optical pulses of invariable form.
The compensation of the dispersive spreading of the
pulses by their nonlinear compression give solitons a
promising outlook for various applications.
At the same time, the solitons of such a type (they
are usually called conservative because they exist in the
systems with a negligibly small energy dissipation, i.e.,
in the absence of optical losses and gain) have the fol-
lowing specific feature. The spectrum of such solitons
is continuous, so they form a family with the continu-
ously varying peak intensity. Therefore, subject to fluc-
tuations, parameters of the conservative solitons drift,
which restricts the area of their application.
Another type of solitons—“dissipative optical soli-
tons,” “autosolitons,” or “dissitons”—is realized in
nonlinear optical systems with a noticeable energy
exchange [2–4]. In this case, under the additional con-
dition of the energy balance, the spectrum of the dissi-
tons proves to be discrete, which efficiently suppresses
the drift of their parameters and enhances the signal-to-
noise ratio. Because of these circumstances, dissitons
as seen as promising for a number of special applica-
tions.
At first, the dissitons were studied for wide-aperture
resonator schemes [2, 3, 5] where they take on the form
of spatial solitons (spatially localized structures of
monochromatic radiation). However, in the simplest
variant of an inertialess nonlinearity of the optical
medium, due to the space–time analogy, the equations
for a transversely one-dimensional laser dissiton coin-
cide with the equation for a dissiton in the waveguide
with nonlinear gain and absorption [6]. This allows us
to predict different types of waveguide dissitons and
their bifurcations upon changes in the waveguide
parameters [4]. However, as the lifetime of the
waveguide solitons shortens, the retardation of nonlin-
ear response of the optical medium becomes a more
are substantially different for resonator and resonator-
free (including waveguide) schemes. In [7], the exist-
ence of dissitons in a waveguide with the inertial non-
linearity was demonstrated by numerical simulations.
The purpose of the present paper is the further analysis
of this problem and, first of all, the determination of the
relationship between the relaxation times of amplifica-
tion and absorption, at which the dissitons of different
types are realized.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As in [7], the initial set of equations consists of the
quasioptical equation for the slowly varying envelope
of the field E
∂E ∂ E
2
------ – ( i + d ) --------2- = ( N g – N a – 1 )E + in 2 E E
2
(1)
∂z ∂τ
and the Bloch equations for the population difference
of N particles corresponding to the gain (subscript g)
and absorption (subscript a)
∂N g, a
τ g, a ------------
- = N 0g, a – N g, a – ( E /I g, a )N g .
2
(2)
∂τ
Here, z is the longitudinal coordinate (along the
waveguide axis) in units of the inverse constant coeffi-
cient of linear absorption; τ = t – z/vg is the time in the
accompanying frame of reference moving along the
z-axis with the group velocity of light in the medium
vg; and the time t is expressed in the characteristic units
of the frequency dispersion. The effective diffusion
coefficient d describes the finite width of the spectral
contour of the absorption and gain; n2 is the coefficient
of Kerr nonlinearity of the refractive index of the
medium; τg, a are, respectively, the relaxation times for
the gain and absorption; Ig, a are the saturation intensi-
ties of the nonlinearity; and N0g, a are the equilibrium
values of the population difference in the absence of

0030-400X/00/8805-0790$20.00 © 2000 MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”

 DISSIPATIVE SOLITONS IN A WAVEGUIDE WITH NONLINEAR GAIN AND ABSORPTION 791

τa there exist “ordinary” dissitons, which for τa, g 0

0.4 smoothly turn into the dissitons for the case of an iner-
tialess medium. Second, for sufficiently large values of
the relaxation time of amplification, there appears a
0.3 class of “Q-dissitons” different from the above type. As
shown in Fig. 1, these types of dissitons exist in differ-
ent nonoverlapping (in contrast to the case of laser dis-
0.2 sitons) regions of the waveguide parameters. The tem-
poral profiles of these two types of dissitons are pre-
sented in Fig. 2. Note that the Q-dissitons are absent in
0.1 the case of an inertialess medium and exist only at a
sufficiently large relaxation time of amplification.
These dissitons are characterized by a considerably
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 larger peak intensity and a smaller time duration than
τg the ordinary dissitons. Given the determining role of
the inertia of amplification and by analogy with the
Fig. 1. Regions of stability of “ordinary” dissitons (left regimes known for solid-state lasers, they can be inter-
shaded region) and “Q-dissitons” (right shaded region); preted as regions of generation of a giant pulse
parameters n2 = 0, d = 0.1, N0a = 2, N0g = 2.06, Ig/Ia = 10/1. (Q-switched pulse), moving along the waveguide.

I(τ) I(τ) CONCLUSIONS

8 (‡) 30 (b)
6 absorption, we separated out the regions of existence of
20
4 (dissitons). By decreasing the relaxation times, one of
10
2
0 0
–5 0 5 10 15 20 10 20 30
τ (in the threshold manner), which promotes noise
Fig. 2. Temporal profile of the intensity I(τ) = |E|2 for
(a) ordinary dissitons and (b) Q-dissitons; τg = (a) 0.1, (b) 1.0;
τa = (a) 0.1, (b) 0.8; the other parameters are the same as in
Fig. 1.
radiation (N0g > 0 and N0a < 0). To emphasize the dissipa-
tive nature of the structures under consideration, we
assume that the frequency detunings (between the radia-
tion frequency and the central frequencies of the gain and
absorption spectra) are absent and also further set n2 = 0.
For the fast nonlinearity of the medium (τg, a 0),
the set of equations (1) and (2) is reduced to the single
quasioptical equation, which, as was pointed out above,
describes both the temporal waveguide and laser trans-
versely-1D dissitons. But even for sufficiently long
pulses in the waveguide, of considerable importance
are both the finite rate of nonlinear response of the
medium and the finiteness of the spectral contours of
the gain and absorption, since despite these factors, the
possibility of the appearance of nonphysical self-accel-
erating pulses arises.
The numerical simulation, performed according to
the scheme of [7], allows us to determine the conditions
of existence of two types of waveguide dissitons. First,
Thus, in the domain of parameters of the single-
mode waveguide with nonlinear (and inertial) gain and
two different types of dissipative soliton-like pulses
the types continuously turns into the ordinary dissiton
known for the inertialess nonlinearity. The second type
exists only at the considerable inertia of amplification
and is interpreted as a moving region of generation of a
40 giant pulse. Both types of dissitons are excited rigidly
suppression.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the International Scien-
tific and Technical Center, project no. 666.
REFERENCES
1. S. A. Akhmanov, V. A. Vysloukh, and S. A. Chirkin,
Optics of Femtosecond Laser Pulses (Moscow, Nauka,
1988).
2. N. N. Rozanov and G. V. Khodova, Opt. Spektrosk. 65,
1375 (1988) [Opt. Spectrosc. 65, 621 (1988)].
3. N. N. Rosanov, A. V. Fedorov, and G. V. Khodova, Phys.
Stat. Sol. B 150, 545 (1988).
4. N. N. Rozanov, Optical Bistability and Hysteresis in
Distributed Nonlinear Systems (Nauka, Moscow, 1997).
5. N. N. Rozanov and S. V. Fedorov, Opt. Spektrosk. 72,
1394 (1992) [Opt. Spectrosc. 72, 782 (1992)].
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Spectrosc. 76, 555 (1994)].
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849 (1998) [Opt. Spectrosc. 84, 767 (1998)].
Translated by N. Reutova

OPTICS AND SPECTROSCOPY Vol. 88 No. 5 2000

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