Waves, Solitons and Turbulence in Optical Systems - Abstract

Pickartz, Sabrina

Scattering of dispersive waves by optical solitons

We investigate the collision of solitons with dispersive wave packets described by a nonlinear Schrödinger equation involving a full dispersion profile and a weak nonlinearity. We apply adiabatic theory so as to quantify the evolution of the soliton. For suitably prepared cases the dispersive wave can be reflected almost perfectly off the soliton, while the properties of the soliton may be changed considerably. This behaviour has recently been observed in experiments, and has important applications in alloptical switching and supercontinuum generation.