Soliton Self-Frequency Shift: Experimental Demonstrations and Applications

Soliton self-frequency shift, a consequence of Raman self-pumping that continuously red-shifts a soliton pulse, has been widely studied recently for applications to fiber-based sources and signal processing. In this paper, the fundamentals of soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) are reviewed. Various fiber platforms for SSFS (single-mode fiber, microstructured fiber, and higher-order-mode fiber) are presented and experimental SSFS demonstrations in these fibers are discussed. Observation of Cerenkov radiation in fibers exhibiting SSFS is also presented. A number of interesting applications of SSFS, such as wavelength-agile lasers, analog to digital conversion, and slow light, are briefly discussed.