Observation of multimode solitons in few-mode fiber.

We experimentally isolate and directly observe multimode solitons in few-mode graded-index fiber. We rely on Raman frequency shifts to spectrally isolate these multimode solitons. By varying the input energy and modal composition of the launched pulse, we observe a continuous variation of multimode solitons with different spatiotemporal properties. They exhibit an energy-volume relation that is distinct from those of single-mode and fully spatiotemporal solitons.

[1]  Yinchieh Lai,et al.  Spatio-temporal solitary pulses in graded-index materials with Kerr nonlinearity , 1995 .

[2]  Frank W. Wise,et al.  Spatiotemporal dynamics of multimode optical solitons , 2015, 2015 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).

[3]  Antonello Cutolo,et al.  Coupled-mode theory of nonlinear propagation in multimode and single-mode fibers: envelope solitons and self-confinement , 1982 .

[4]  Stuart,et al.  Dispersive multiplexing in multimode optical fiber , 2000, Science.

[5]  Shaival Buch,et al.  Soliton stability and trapping in multimode fibers. , 2015, Optics letters.

[6]  Y. Lai,et al.  Off-axial pulse propagation in graded-index materials with Kerr nonlinearity — a variational approach , 1996 .

[7]  A. Hasegawa,et al.  Self-confinement of multimode optical pulse in a glass fiber. , 1980, Optics letters.

[8]  Yaron Silberberg,et al.  Discrete Solitons in Optics , 2008 .

[9]  Francesco Poletti,et al.  Description of ultrashort pulse propagation in multimode optical fibers , 2008 .

[10]  Rick Trebino,et al.  Measuring spatiotemporal intensity-and-phase complexity of multimode fiber output pulses , 2016, SPIE LASE.

[11]  S Berdagué,et al.  Mode division multiplexing in optical fibers. , 1982, Applied optics.

[12]  A. Gnauck,et al.  Mode-Division Multiplexing Over 96 km of Few-Mode Fiber Using Coherent 6 $\,\times\,$6 MIMO Processing , 2012, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[13]  B. Crosignani,et al.  Soliton propagation in multimode optical fibers. , 1981, Optics letters.

[14]  Arash Mafi,et al.  Pulse Propagation in a Short Nonlinear Graded-Index Multimode Optical Fiber , 2012, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[15]  Srikanth Raghavan,et al.  Spatiotemporal solitons in inhomogeneous nonlinear media , 2000 .

[16]  L. Mollenauer,et al.  Discovery of the soliton self-frequency shift. , 1986, Optics letters.

[17]  Y. Silberberg Collapse of optical pulses. , 1990, Optics letters.

[18]  F. Wise,et al.  Optical solitons in graded-index multimode fibres , 2013, Nature Communications.

[19]  Frank W. Wise,et al.  Ultrabroadband Dispersive Radiation by Spatiotemporal Oscillation of Multimode Waves , 2016 .

[20]  Ali H. Sayed,et al.  Fundamentals and challenges of optical multiple-input multiple-output multimode fiber links - eScholarship , 2007 .

[21]  L. Nelson,et al.  Space-division multiplexing in optical fibres , 2013, Nature Photonics.

[22]  Akira Hasegawa,et al.  Transmission of stationary nonlinear optical pulses in dispersive dielectric fibers. I. Anomalous dispersion , 1973 .

[23]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Nonlinear Fiber Optics , 1989 .

[24]  M. Fermann,et al.  Single-mode excitation of multimode fibers with ultrashort pulses. , 1998, Optics letters.

[25]  James P. Gordon,et al.  Experimental observation of picosecond pulse narrowing and solitons in optical fibers (A) , 1980 .

[26]  Ali H. Sayed,et al.  Fundamentals and challenges of optical multiple-input multiple-output multimode fiber links [Topics in Optical Communications] , 2007, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[27]  Robert Lingle,et al.  Transmission Over 1050-km Few-Mode Fiber Based on Bidirectional Distributed Raman Amplification , 2016, Journal of Lightwave Technology.