Effect of third-order dispersion on pulsating, erupting and creeping solitons

The effects of third-order dispersion on pulsating, erupting and creeping solitons, which are three novel pulsating solutions of the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, are investigated respectively. It is found that even small third-order dispersion can dramatically alter the behavior of these solitons. The third-order dispersion can eliminate the periodicity of the pulsating and creeping solitons and transform them into fixed-shape solitons. This is important for potential application, such as to realize experimentally the undistorted transmission of femtosecond pulsed in optical fibers. But even larger third-order dispersion will cause the pulsating and creeping solitons spread rapidly on one side. Moreover, third-order dispersion will alter the explosion of the erupting soliton, causing the "eruptions" appear asymmetrically or making the erupting soliton become chaos for a little larger third-order dispersion. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.