Long-term storage of a soliton bit stream using phase-sensitive amplification: effects of soliton-soliton interactions and quantum noise

We analyze the long-term stability properties of a soliton bit stream store d in a fiber ring in which linear loss is compensated by phase-sensitive am plification. The analysis and numerical computations presented here model t he effects of soliton-soliton interactions, pulse timing and amplitude fluc tuations induced by quantum noise, and phase noise caused by guided acousti c-wave Brillouin scattering. We show that phase-sensitive amplification sig nificantly enhances the storage ring's stability properties, so that the on e's (the soliton pulses) are asymptotically stable and that the noise on th e zero's of the bit stream (i.e., where solitons are absent) is bounded. Th e soliton-soliton interactions and noise-induced pulse timing jitter are su bstantially reduced by phase-sensitive amplification. Finally, we demonstra te that by adding a relatively small amount of modulation to the pump pulse s that drive the amplifiers, it is possible to eliminate all of the residua l pulse interactions and timing jitter. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.