Soliton-induced relativistic-scattering and amplification

E. Rubino, A. Lotti, F. Belgiorno, S. L. Cacciatori, A. Couairon, U. Leonhardt, D. Faccio*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Solitons are of fundamental importance in photonics due to applications in optical data transmission and also as a tool for investigating novel phenomena ranging from light generation at new frequencies and wave-trapping to rogue waves. Solitons are also moving scatterers: they generate refractive index perturbations moving at the speed of light. Here we found that such perturbations scatter light in an unusual way: they amplify light by the mixing of positive and negative frequencies, as we describe using a first Born approximation and numerical simulations. The simplest scenario in which these effects may be observed is within the initial stages of optical soliton propagation: a steep shock front develops that may efficiently scatter a second, weaker probe pulse into relatively intense positive and negative frequency modes with amplification at the expense of the soliton. Our results show a novel all-optical amplification scheme that relies on soliton induced scattering.

Original languageEnglish
Article number932
Number of pages4
JournalScientific Reports
Volume2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Dec 2012

Keywords

  • Optical-fibres
  • Solitons
  • Non-linear optics
  • Ultrafast photonics
  • Supercontinuum generation

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