Long-range soliton interactions in periodically amplified fiber links

In this study we examine the physical mechanism that prevents the use of sh ort optical pulses in high bit-rate transmission systems. Continuum-induced soliton-soliton interaction is the cause of long-range as well as enhanced direct soliton-soliton interaction. We show, by means of a purely analytic al approach, that solitan-continuum interaction causes position wiggling of the soliton and that when this effect is applied to a random sequence of s olitons it becomes an additional cause of timing jitter. (C) 1999 Optical S ociety of America. [S0740-3224(98)01712-3]. OCIS codes: 060.4510, 060.5530, 060.0060.