Distorsion of the Nonlinear Spectrum of Solitonic Pulses Induced by Stimulated Raman Scattering

Solitons in optical fibers were first discovered fifty years ago as pulses of light that propagate indefinitely without alteration of their shape or spectrum. Introduced in the early 70’, they have been extensively studied in the context of ultra-fast telecommunications. Immediately afterwards, the soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) was discovered as a consequence of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) [1]. SSFS is responsible for the drifting of solitons' spectrum to lower frequencies which is associated with a variation of velocity (desceleration). SRS is also responsible for the splitting of a powerful pulse into several solitons, the soliton fission, a process involved in the generation of supercontinua.