The use of squeezed light can overcome the standard quantum limit in phase sensitive optical measurements. This thesis is a theoretical and experimental investigation of soliton squeezing at 1.55gm. Theoretically, the effects of the continuum on squeezing have been investigated. Experimentally, modelocked fiber laser sources at 1.55gm have been developed for both schemes and their noise propert...

Phase sensitive analysis of femtosecond pulse propagation in optical fibers employing frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) is presented and compared to numerical simulations employing a modified cubic nonlinear Schr€ odinger equation (NLSE). Phase information obtained from deconvolution of the experimental traces allows the observation and characterization of specific pulse propagation feat...

We demonstrate a hybrid time-domain chirp switch (TDCS) in which the nonlinear chirper is an AlGaAs waveguide and the soliton dispersive delay line is a polarization-maintaining fiber. The hybrid TDCS can restore timing in a switching or transmission system, and when combined with an optical amplifier, it can act as an ultrafast, all-optical regenerator for soliton pulses. The timing restoratio...

Solitons are localized waves formed by a balance of focusing and defocusing effects. These nonlinear waves exist in diverse forms of matter yet exhibit similar properties including stability, periodic recurrence and particle-like trajectories. One important property is soliton fission, a process by which an energetic higher-order soliton breaks apart due to dispersive or nonlinear perturbations...

We investigate experimentally the interaction between amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and a soliton, which are both generated in a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (LC) cell. A light beam is injected through an optical fiber slid into the cell to form a soliton beam. ASE is then automatically collected by this self-induced waveguide and efficiently coupled into the same optical fiber, in t...

We investigate experimentally the propagation of fundamental Gaussian beams and vortices in a twodimensional photonic lattice optically induced with partially coherent light. We focus on soliton–lattice interactions and vortex–lattice interactions when the lattice is operated in a nonlinear regime. In this case a host of novel phenomena is demonstrated including soliton-induced lattice dislocat...

The possibility of using spatial solitary waves for implementation of optical logic and switching has led to a number of experimental and theoretical investigations of the interactions between spatial solitons.1–8 An extensive discussion of geometrical and material alternatives for implementing optical soliton switches was given in Ref. 9. Initial experimental work in this area centered on Kerr...

A generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation with polynomial Kerr nonlinearity and non-Kerr terms of an arbitrarily higher order is investigated. This model can be applied to the femtosecond pulse propagation in highly-nonlinear optical media. We introduce a new chirping ansatz given as an expansion in powers of intensity of the light pulse and obtain both linear and nonlinear chirp contributio...