This book introduces the basic concept of a dissipative soliton, before going to explore recent theoretical and experimental results for various classes of dissipative optical solitons, high-energy dissipative solitons and their applications, and mode-locked fiber lasers. A soliton is a concept which describes various physical phenomena ranging from solitary waves forming on water to ultrashort optical pulses propagating in an optical fiber. While solitons are usually attributed to integrability, in recent years the notion of a soliton has been extended to various systems which are not necessarily integrable. Until now, the main emphasis has been given to well-known conservative soliton systems, but new avenues of inquiry were opened when physicists realized that solitary waves did indeed exist in a wide range of non-integrable and non-conservative systems leading to the concept of so-called dissipative optical solitons. Dissipative optical solitons have many unique properties which differ from those of their conservative counterparts. For example, except for very few cases, they form zero-parameter families and their properties are completely determined by the external parameters of the optical system. They can exist indefinitely in time, as long as these parameters stay constant. These features of dissipative solitons are highly desirable for several applications, such as in-line regeneration of optical data streams and generation of stable trains of laser pulses by mode-locked cavities.

The dissipative soliton concept is a fundamental extension of the concept of solitons in conservative and integrable systems. It includes ideas from three major sources, namely standard soliton theory developed since the 1960s; nonlinear dynamics theory; and Prigogine's ideas of systems far from equilibrium. These three sources also correspond to the three component parts of this novel paradigm. This book explains the above principles in detail and gives the reader various examples.

This volume is devoted to the exciting topic of dissipative solitons, i.e. pulses or spatially localised waves in systems exhibiting gain and loss. Examples are laser systems, nonlinear resonators and optical transmission lines. The physical principles and mathematical concepts are explained in a clear and concise way, suitable for students and young researchers. The similarities and differences in the notion of a soliton between dissipative systems and Hamiltonian and integrable systems are discussed, and many examples are given. The contributions are written by the world's leading experts in the field, making it a unique exposition of this emerging topic.

The dissipative soliton concept is a fundamental extension of the concept of solitons in conservative and integrable systems. It includes ideas from three major sources, namely standard soliton theory developed since the 1960s; nonlinear dynamics theory; and Prigogine's ideas of systems far from equilibrium. These three sources also correspond to the three component parts of this novel paradigm. This book explains the above principles in detail and gives the reader various examples.

Solitons in Optical Fiber Systems Discover a robust exploration of the main properties and behaviors of solitons in fiber systems In Solitons in Optical Fiber Systems, distinguished researcher Dr. Mário F. S. Ferreira delivers a thorough treatment of the main characteristics of solitons in optical fiber communication systems and fiber devices, paying special attention to stationary and pulsating dissipative soliton pulses. The book discusses the technical aspects associated with the physical background and the theoretical description of soliton characteristics under different conditions. The author employs numerical analyses and variational approaches to describe soliton evolution and describes the phenomenon of supercontinuum generation and various solitonic effects observed in highly nonlinear fibers, like photonic crystal fibers. Readers will learn about different applications of fiber solitons in transmission systems, fiber lasers, couplers, and pulse compression schemes, as well as complex Ginzburg-Landau equations, which are used to model different types of dissipative systems. The book also includes: A thorough introduction to solitons, including the linear and nonlinear effects of a wave, the discovery of solitary waves, and the discovery of solitons in optical fibers An exploration of fiber dispersion and nonlinearity, including optical fiber dispersion, the pulse propagation equation, and the impact of fiber dispersion Practical discussions of nonlinear effects in optical fibers, including self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulations, four-wave mixing, and stimulated raman scattering In-depth treatments of solitons in optical fibers, including modulation instability, dark solitons, bistable solitons, XPM-paired solitons, and the variational approach Perfect for senior undergraduate and graduate students in courses dealing with fiber-optics technology, Solitons in Optical Fiber Systems is also an ideal resource for engineers and technicians in the fiber-optics industry and researchers of nonlinear fiber optics.

The notion of dissipative solitons is a useful concept that allows us to describe, in general terms, a variety of phenomena in physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. Some specific features of these formations are common for all of them, independent of the problem that we are solving and the model we are using. Many problems in optics involving gain and loss can be formulated in terms of a single "master equation" that is, in one or another form, of the complex cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE) type.

During the past ten years, there has been intensive development in theoretical and experimental research of solitons in periodic media. This book provides a unique and informative account of the state-of-the-art in the field. The volume opens with a review of the existence of robust solitary pulses in systems built as a periodic concatenation of very different elements. Among the most famous examples of this type of systems are the dispersion management in fiber-optic telecommunication links, and (more recently) photonic crystals. A number of other systems belonging to the same broad class of spatially periodic strongly inhomogeneous media (such as the split-step and tandem models) have recently been identified in nonlinear optics, and transmission of solitary pulses in them was investigated in detail. Similar soliton dynamics occurs in temporal-domain counterparts of such systems, where they are subject to strong time-periodic modulation (for instance, the Feshbach-resonance management in Bose-Einstein condensates). Basis results obtained for all these systems are reviewed in the book. This timely work will serve as a useful resource for the soliton community.