OBSERVATION OF MULTIPLE WAVELENGTH SOLITON COLLISIONS IN OPTICAL-SYSTEMS WITH FIBER AMPLIFIERS

Solitons of different wavelengths are found to exhibit substantial spectral and temporal changes when collisions are centered in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. By using two soliton pulse trains, with ∼70-ps-wide pulses, spectrally separated by 1.8 Å, and 106 km of non-dispersion-shifted fiber, we observe a spectral and temporal shift of as much as 0.35 Å and 55 ps, respectively, for each soliton. Both soliton wavelengths shift the same amount, but in opposite directions and remain undisturbed in terms of shape and amplitude after the collision. This shift may impose limitations on multiple wavelength soliton based communication systems utilizing fiber amplifiers.