DISPERSION-MANAGED SOLITON DYNAMICS

We obtain and solve algebraic eigenvalue equations that predict the de pendence of the pulse energy of a dispersion-managed soliton on pulse duration, chirp, and dispersion-map parameters. We demonstrate that a variational ansatz based on a Gaussian pulse shape remains useful even when the actual pulse shape is not Gaussian, and we show that the enh ancement factor saturates as the pulse duration decreases. (C) 1997 Op tical Society of America.