Fission of optical solitons induced by stimulated Raman effect.

Fission of optical solitons in a glass fiber induced by the stimulated Raman effect is demonstrated by a theory, simulations and experiments. The solitons born by fission retain the amplitudes predicted by inverse scattering calculations whereas fission is produced by the Raman induced, amplitude dependent frequency shift and by momentum conservation. For n=2 solitons, the fission occurs within a distance of 15 km even for an initial pulse width of ten picosend.