title: Soliton-induced relativistic-scattering and amplification.
abstract: Solitons are of fundamental importance in photonics due to applications in optical data transmission and also as a tool for investigating novel phenomena ranging from light generation at new frequencies and wave-trapping to rogue waves. Solitons are also moving scatterers: they generate refractive index perturbations moving at the speed of light. Here we found that such perturbations scatter light in an unusual way: they amplify light by the mixing of positive and negative frequencies, as we describe using a first Born approximation and numerical simulations. The simplest scenario in which these effects may be observed is within the initial stages of optical soliton propagation: a steep shock front develops that may efficiently scatter a second, weaker probe pulse into relatively intense positive and negative frequency modes with amplification at the expense of the soliton. Our results show a novel all-optical amplification scheme that relies on soliton induced scattering.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Università dell'Insubria, Via Valleggio 11, IT-22100 Como, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rubino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lotti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Belgiorno
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cacciatori
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Couairon
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Leonhardt
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faccio