Amplification of wavelength-shifting soliton in active photonic crystal fibers

We demonstrate the amplification of a wavelength-shifting soliton in an active photonic crystal fiber (PCF). When a redshifting soliton experiences optical gain in a certain spectral range in the active PCF, in addition to its amplification, the redshifting speed of the soliton is increased dramatically and the corresponding pulse width of the soliton can also be reduced down dramatically. The dramatical increase in the redshifting speed is due to the amplification and large pulse compression. Large pulse compression arises because of the self-reinforcing feature of the fundamental soliton during amplification. Furthermore, gain-induced deceleration of the optical soliton causes the collision between the soliton and its corresponding dispersive wave and the generation of the temporal analog of reflection of optical beams. Our experimental results coincided with the simulated results partly.