RP Photonics logo
VL logo part of the
Virtual
Library

Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology

Dispersive Wave

previous  |  next  |  feedback
Ask RP Photonics what kind of numerical modeling of pulse propagation in fibers (e.g. with RP ProPulse) may be useful for you.

Definition: a linearly propagating wave which is split off by a soliton wave under certain conditions

When an optical pulse is launched into a fiber with anomalous chromatic dispersion so that the pulse parameters do not exactly match those of a soliton, the pulse will evolve (within some propagation distance in the fiber) into a soliton pulse and some temporally spreading background. The latter is called a dispersive wave, since it is spreading due to the effect of group delay dispersion, and this is not compensated by the fiber nonlinearity, since the peak power is too low. The closer the parameters of the initial pulse are to the parameters of a soliton, the higher is the percentage of the pulse energy which ends up in the soliton rather than in the dispersive wave.

A dispersive wave can also be formed when the soliton is disturbed in some way, e.g. by a localized loss in the fiber (causing a deviation from the soliton condition by suddenly reducing the pulse energy) or by the transition into a fiber with modified parameters. Similar effects occur for quasi-soliton pulses circulating in the resonator of a mode-locked laser, where dispersion and nonlinearity usually occur in discrete packages rather than smoothly distributed as in a fiber. In the latter case, the circulating soliton is subject to periodically occurring disturbances, which couple the soliton to the copropagating dispersive wave. This can result in the formation of Kelly sidebands.

See also: solitons, dispersion, Kelly sidebands

Category: pulses

arrow
Home New articles Spotlight Feedback Advertising
Categories Search Quiz Links Pagehits
D

This encyclopedia is provided by
RP Photonics Consulting GmbH.

Utilize the expertise of the author, Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta, also in the form of technical consulting services!

Field Guide to Lasers

This new book by Dr. Paschotta explains principles and types of lasers.

TRUMPF logo

TRUMPF-Laser

a leading supplier of industrial diode pumped solid state lasers,
CO2 lasers, and laser systems for material processing.

A.L.S. logo

A.L.S. GmbH

Picosecond laser diodes
<30 ps, 375 - 1600 nm, >1 Wp, single shot - 120 MHz

Onefive logo

Onefive

Low-noise
femtosecond,
picosecond,
and tunable single-frequency lasers for OEM and R&D applications.

RP Fiber Power

This software helps to design and analyze fiber amplifiers and lasers.

RP Q-switch

A powerful software tool for designing
Q-switched lasers. See the details.

Your Advertisement at This Place

will be seen by many thousands of visitors per month. These banners receive far over 100'000 page hits per month. Check the details.