SELF-TUNING OF DISSIPATIVE SOLITONS TO THE ZERO-DISPERSION POINT

It is shown that optical pulses in dispersive media with dissipation a nd saturable broadband gain experience frequency self-shifting toward the point of zero group-velocity dispersion. The decreasing dispersion leads to a strong compression of the pulses at constant pulse energy. The ultrashort pulses that result from this evolution have a duration limited only by the third-order group-velocity dispersion of the medi um. A set of solitonlike pulses is found that has a continuous spectru m of velocities, and a selection rule is presented to determine the un ique solution established from an arbitrary initial pulse form.