Acoustic Effect in Optical Fibers

The first experiments on long-distance soliton transmission1 revealed a strange long-range interaction between pulses. Shortly thereafter it was shown theoretically that this long-range interaction is due to the electrostrictive excitation of acoustic waves by light pulses and the subsequent interaction of light pulses with excited acoustic waves.2 Further theoretical and experimental investigations showed that the acoustic effect significantly increases the soliton timing jitter in communication lines and limits both the bit rates and information transmission distances.3 This acoustically-induced pulse interaction does not only manifest itself in the long-distance soliton propagation; experiments on passively modelocked fiber ring lasers indicate the presence of a long-range interaction that can lead to regular pulse spacing inside the laser cavity.4 Theoretical calculations show that the acoustic interaction between passively modelocked pulses in fiber ring lasers are complicated and can cause pulse bunching or can stabilize periodic sequences of pulses.5