Influence of Self-steepening and Higher Dispersion Effects on the Propagation Characteristics of Solitons in Optical Fibers

In this paper we consider the influence of higher-order nonlinear effects like third-order dispersion, self-steepening effect on the propagation characteristics of solitons. By solving the higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation we show that the self-steepening effect can lead to the breakup of higher-order solitons through the phenomenon of soliton fission. This effect plays an essential role in several nonlinear phenomena, in particular in the so-called supercontinuum generation in optical fibers. Moreover, we can use third order dispersion to compress pulses as well as changing the frequency.