Evolution of Circularly Polarized Pulses in Nonlinear Optical Fibres

Abstract

The discussion in this paper is centred upon the evolution of circularly polarized pulses for a length of optical fibre in which the beat length and pulse height remain constant, but the size of the group velocity dispersion is varied. The paper essentially contains a preview of work in progress on a penetration into a rather difficult parameter space. It begins with an overview of the concept of critical power and stability and then follows a route from the existing body of c.w. work on nonlinear birefringence into the soliton regime. Although this a difficult area, the general aim is to test the validity of certain critical power conclusions that have arisen in the c.w. case, as a transition from c.w. propagation to pulse mode is made. The preliminary calculations reported here seem to indicate that the clear-cut features of the c.w. case are not maintained.