Generation of bright and dark soliton trains from continuous-wave light using cross-phase modulation in a nonlinear-optical loop mirror

A simple technique for the simultaneous generation of bright and dark soliton trains from continuous-wave (CW) light is proposed and demonstrated theoretically. It is based on the optical switching characteristics of a nonlinear-optical loop mirror (NOLM) through which the CW signal is switched by a pump pulse train at another wavelength by the creation of cross-phase modulation-induced phase bias between the counter-propagating CW components. The transmitted and reflected signals exiting from the NOLM can then evolve, respectively, into bright and dark soliton trains in fibers with the appropriate group-velocity dispersion at the signal wavelength. Numerical simulations indicate that the generated solitons can be narrower than the pump pulses and that the scheme permits the conversion of nearly all of the CW energy into the soliton train energy without generating pulse pedestals.