Polarization domain walls in optical fibres as topological bits for data transmission.
Domain walls are topological defects which occur at symmetry-breaking phase transitions. While domain walls have been intensively studied in ferromagnetic materials, where they nucleate at the boundary of neighbouring regions of oppositely aligned magnetic dipoles, their equivalent in optics have not been fully explored so far. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the existence of a universal class of polarization domain walls in the form of localized polarization knots in conventional optical fibres. We exploit their binding properties for optical data transmission beyond the Kerr limits of normally dispersive fibres. In particular, we demonstrate how trapping energy in well-defined train of polarization domain walls allows undistorted propagation of polarization knots at a rate of 28 GHz along a 10 km length of normally dispersive optical fibre. These results constitute the first experimental observation of kink-antikink solitary wave propagation in nonlinear fibre optics.
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (ICB), UMR 6303 CNRS - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Avenue Alain Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon, France.
M
M
Gilles
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (ICB), UMR 6303 CNRS - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Avenue Alain Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon, France.
P-Y
PY
Bony
Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires, University of Paris VII, 75251 Paris, France.
J
J
Garnier
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (ICB), UMR 6303 CNRS - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Avenue Alain Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon, France.
A
A
Picozzi
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (ICB), UMR 6303 CNRS - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Avenue Alain Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon, France; Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
M
M
Guasoni
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (ICB), UMR 6303 CNRS - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 9 Avenue Alain Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon, France.
J
J
Fatome