Shape-changing collisions of coupled bright solitons in birefringent optical fibers

Abstract We critically review the recent progress in understanding soliton propagation in birefringent optical fibers. By constructing the most general bright two-soliton solution of the integrable coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equation (Manakov model) we point out that solitons in birefringent fibers can in general change their shape after interaction due to a change in the intensity distribution among the modes even though the total energy is conserved. However, the standard shape-preserving collision (elastic collision) property of the (1 + 1)-dimensional solitons is recovered when restrictions are imposed on some of the soliton parameters. As a consequence the following further properties can be deduced using this shape-changing collision. 1. (i) The exciting possibility of switching of solitons between orthogonally polarized modes of the birefringent fiber exists. 2. (ii) When additional effects due to periodic rotation of birefringence axes are considered, the shape changing collision can be used as a switch to suppress or to enhance the periodic intensity exchange between the orthogonally polarized modes. 3. (iii) For ultra short optical soliton pulse propagation in non-Kerr media, from the governing equation an integrable system of coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equation with cubic-quintic terms is identified. It admits a nonlocal Poisson bracket structure. 4. (iv) If we take into account the higher-order terms in the coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equation then their effect on the shape changing collision of solitons, during optical pulse propagation, can be studied by using a direct perturbational approach.