Dispersion-managed soliton interactions in optical fibers

We simulated dispersion-managed soliton propagation and interaction in optical fibers. The energy-enhancement factor, together with the time-bandwidth product and the stretching factor, were calculated as a function of the difference in absolute values of accumulated dispersion in the fiber spans. The interaction strength of the dispersion-managed solitons was found to depend on the stretching factor. When this factor is less than 1.5, the interaction is weaker than for ideal solitons. When it is more than 1.5, there is a strong interaction between the pulses, which constrains the energy enhancement for practical applications. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.