Editing Soliton (section)

==In fiber optics==
{{See also|Soliton (optics)}}
Much experimentation has been done using solitons in fiber optics applications.  Solitons in a fiber optic system are described by the [[Manakov equations]].
Solitons' inherent stability make long-distance transmission possible without the use of [[repeater]]s, and could potentially double transmission capacity as well.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=172302644 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120728111145/http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=172302644 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 28, 2012 |title=Photons advance on two fronts |publisher=EETimes.com |date=October 24, 2005 |access-date=2011-02-15 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
! Year !! Discovery
|-
| 1973
| [[Akira Hasegawa]] of [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]] [[Bell Labs]] was the first to suggest that solitons could exist in [[optical fiber]]s, due to a balance between [[self-phase modulation]] and [[dispersion (optics)|anomalous dispersion]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://tappert.us/fred/reminiscences_on_optical_soliton_research.pdf
|title=Reminiscences on Optical Soliton Research with Akira Hasegawa
|author=Fred Tappert
|date=January 29, 1998
|author-link=Fred Tappert
}}</ref> Also in 1973 [[Robin Bullough]] made the first mathematical report of the existence of optical solitons. He also proposed the idea of a soliton-based transmission system to increase performance of optical [[telecommunications]].
|-
| 1987
| {{harvtxt|Emplit|Hamaide|Reynaud|Froehly|1987}}&nbsp;– from the Universities of Brussels and Limoges&nbsp;– made the first experimental observation of the propagation of a [[dark soliton]], in an optical fiber.
|-
| 1988
| [[Linn F. Mollenauer]] and his team transmitted soliton pulses over 4,000 kilometers using a phenomenon called the [[Raman effect]], named after [[Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman|Sir C. V. Raman]] who first described it in the 1920s, to provide [[optical gain]] in the fiber.
|-
| 1991
| A Bell Labs research team transmitted solitons error-free at 2.5 gigabits per second over more than 14,000 kilometers, using [[erbium]] optical fiber amplifiers (spliced-in segments of optical fiber containing the rare earth element erbium). Pump lasers, coupled to the optical amplifiers, activate the erbium, which energizes the light pulses.
|-
| 1998
| Thierry Georges and his team at [[France Telecom]] R&D Center, combining optical solitons of different [[wavelength]]s ([[wavelength-division multiplexing]]), demonstrated a ''composite'' data transmission of 1 [[Binary prefix|terabit]] per second (1,000,000,000,000 units of information per second), not to be confused with Terabit-Ethernet.

The above impressive experiments have not translated to actual commercial soliton system deployments however, in either terrestrial or submarine systems, chiefly due to the [[James P. Gordon#Solitons and optical communications|Gordon–Haus (GH) jitter]]. The GH jitter requires sophisticated, expensive compensatory solutions that ultimately makes [[Wavelength-division multiplexing#Dense WDM|dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM)]] soliton transmission in the field unattractive, compared to the conventional non-return-to-zero/return-to-zero paradigm. Further, the likely future adoption of the more spectrally efficient phase-shift-keyed/QAM formats makes soliton transmission even less viable, due to the Gordon–Mollenauer effect. Consequently, the long-haul fiberoptic transmission soliton has remained a laboratory curiosity.
|-
| 2000
| [[Steven Cundiff]] predicted the existence of a [[vector soliton]] in a birefringence fiber cavity passively mode locking through a [[SESAM|semiconductor saturable absorber mirror]] (SESAM). The polarization state of such a vector soliton could either be rotating or locked depending on the cavity parameters.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Cundiff | first1=S. T. | last2=Collings | first2=B. C. | last3=Akhmediev | first3=N. N. | last4=Soto-Crespo | first4=J. M. | last5=Bergman | first5=K. | last6=Knox | first6=W. H. | doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.3988 | title=Observation of Polarization-Locked Vector Solitons in an Optical Fiber | year=1999 | journal=Physical Review Letters | volume=82 | issue=20 | page=3988 | bibcode=1999PhRvL..82.3988C| hdl=10261/54313 | hdl-access=free }}</ref>
|-
| 2008
| D. Y. Tang ''et al.'' observed a novel form of [[vector soliton|higher-order vector soliton]] from the perspectives of experiments and numerical simulations.  Different types of vector solitons and the polarization state of vector solitons have been investigated by his group.<ref>{{cite journal | first1=D. Y. | last1=Tang | first2=H. | last2=Zhang | first3=L. M. | last3=Zhao | first4=X. | last4=Wu | title=Observation of high-order polarization-locked vector solitons in a fiber laser | year=2008 | journal=Physical Review Letters | volume=101 | issue=15 | pages=153904 | doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.153904 | pmid=18999601 | bibcode=2008PhRvL.101o3904T| arxiv=0903.2392 | s2cid=35230072 }}</ref>
|}