Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Review Article
  • Published:

Quantum solitons in optical fibres

Nature volume 365, pages 307–313 (1993)Cite this article

Abstract

The quantum-mechanical properties of long-lived optical pulses known as solitons have recently been studied theoretically and observed experimentally. These experiments suggest effective ways of reducing quantum noise in signal transmission and of performing quantum-mechanical non-demolition measurements without destroying the signal.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Scott-Russell, J. Proc. R. Soc. Edinb. 1, 433–434 (1844).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hasegawa, A. & Tappert, F. Appl. Phys. Lett. 23, 142–144 (1973).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mollenauer, L. F., Stolen, R. H. & Gordon, J. P. Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 1095–1098 (1980).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Nakazawa, M., Yamada, E., Kubota, H. & Suzuki, K. Electron. Lett. 27, 1270–1272 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zakharov, V. & Shabat, A. Zh. eksp. teor. Fiz 61, 118–134 (1971): also published as Soviet Phys. JETP 34, 62–69 (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Barthelemy, A., Maneuf, S. & Froehly, C. Opt. Commun. 55, 201–206 (1985).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bethe, H. A. Z. Phys. 71, 205–226 (1931).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Carter, S. J., Drummond, P. D., Reid, M. D. & Shelby, R. M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1841–1843 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Drummond, P. D. & Carter, S. J. J. opt. Soc. Am. B4, 1565–1573 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lai, Y. & Haus, H. A. Phys. Rev. A40, 844–853 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Haus, H. A. & Lai, Y. J. opt. Soc. Am. B7, 386–392 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Rosenbluh, M. & Shelby, R. M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 153–156 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Walls, D. F. Nature 306, 141–146 (1983).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Shapiro, J. H. IEEE J. Quant. Electron. QE-21, 237–250 (1985).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Schrödinger, E. Naturwissenschaften 14, 664 (1926).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. J. opt Soc. Am. B4, (Special issue on squeezed states of the electromagnetic field: eds Kimble, H. J. & Walls, D. F.) 1450–1741 (1987).

  17. J. mod. Optics 34, (Special issue on squeezed states light: eds Loudon, R. & Knight, P. L.) 709–1020 (1987).

  18. Appl. Phys. B55, (Special issue on squeezed states and nonclassical light: eds Giacobino, E. & Fabre, C.) 189–303 (1992).

  19. Haus, H. A., Watanabe, K. & Yamamoto, Y. J. opt. Soc. Am. B6, 1138–1148 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Watanabe, K., Nakano, H., Honold, A. & Yamamoto, Y. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 2257–2260 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Watanabe, K. & Yamamoto, Y. Phys. Rev. A42, 1699–1702 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Friberg, S. R., Machida, S. & Yamamoto, Y. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 3165–3168 (1992).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Landau, L. & Peierls, R. Z. Phys. 69, 56–59 (1931).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Braginsky, V. B. & Vorontsov, Y. I. Usp. Fiz. Nauk 114, 41–53 (1974): also published as Sov. Phys. -Usp. 17, 644–650 (1975).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Caves, C. M., Thorne, K. S., Drever, R. W. P., Sandberg, V. D. & Zimmermann, M. Rev. mod. Phys. 52, 341–392 (1980).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Braginsky, V. B., Vorontsov, Yu. I. & Thorne, K. S. Science 209, 547–557 (1980).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Braginsky, V. B. & Khalili, F. Ya. Quantum Measurement (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  28. Hopfield, J. J. Phys. Rev. 112, 1555–1567 (1958).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Drummond, P. D. Phys. Rev. A42, 6845–6857 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Yurke, B. & Potasek, M. J. J. opt. Soc. Am. B6, 1227–1238 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Drummond, P. D. & Hardman, A. D. Europhys. Lett. 21, 279–284 (1993).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Shelby, R. M., Levenson, M. D. & Bayer, P. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 939–942 (1985).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Shelby, R. M., Levenson, M. D. & Bayer, P. W. Phys. Rev. B31, 5244–5252 (1985).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Shelby, R. M., Drummond, P. D. & Carter, S. J. Phys. Rev. A42, 2966–2976 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Carter, S. J. & Drummond, P. D. Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 3757–3760 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Lieb, E. H. & Liniger, W. Phys. Rev. 130, 1605–1616 (1936).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  37. Yang, C. N. Phys. Rev. 168, 1920–1923 (1967).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. Glauber, R. J. Phys. Rev. 131, 2766–2788 (1963).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  39. Sudarshan, E. C. G. Phys. Rev. Lett. 10, 277–279 (1963).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  40. Pegg, D. T. & Barnett, S. M. Phys. Rev. A39, 1665–1675 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Kaup, D. J. Phys. Rev. A42, 5689–5694 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Drummond, P. D., Carter, S. J. & Shelby, R. M. Opt. Lett. 14, 373–375 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Shirasaki, M. & Haus, H. A. J. opt. Soc. Am. B7, 30–34 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Milburn, G. J. J. opt. Soc. Am. B4, 1476–1489 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Levenson, M. D. & Shelby, R. M. J. Mod. Opt. 34, 775–792 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Milburn, G. J. & Walls, D. F. Phys. Rev. A28, 2065–2070 (1983).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  47. Yurke, B. J. opt. Soc. Am. B5, 732–738 (1985).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Imoto, N., Haus, H. A. & Yamomoto, Y. Phys. Rev. A32, 2287–2292 (1985).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Levenson, M. D., Shelby, R. M., Reid, M. & Walls, D. F. Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2473–2476 (1986).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. La Porta, A., Slusher, R. E. & Yurke, B. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 28–31 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Grangier, P., Roch, J.-F. & Roger, G. Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 1418–1421 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Friberg, S. R. in Coherence and Quantum Optics VI (eds Eberly, J. H., Mandel, L. & Wolf, E.) 327–331, (Plenum, New York, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Sakai, Y., Hawkins, R. J. & Friberg, S. R. Opt. Lett. 15, 239–241 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Taylor, J. R. Optical Solitons: Theory and Experiment (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  55. Haus, H. A. Proc. IEEE 81, 970–983 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Gordon, J. P. & Haus, H. A. Opt. Lett. 11, 665–667 (1986).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  57. Islam, M. N. Ultrafast Fiber Switching Devices and Systems (Cambridge Univ. Press 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Opt. Quant. Electron. 24, (Special issue on all-optical switching using solitons: ed. Wright, E.) S1215–S1336 (1992).

  59. Friberg, S. R. & Jiang, W. B. in Photonic Switching II, (eds Tada, K. & Hinton, H. S.) 138–141 (Springer, Berlin, 1990).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  60. Friberg, S. R. Appl. Phys. Lett. 63, 429–431 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Bennett, C. H. Scient. Am. 257(5), 88–96 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  62. Yamamoto, Y., Kitagawa, M. & Igeta, K. in 3rd Asia-Pacific Physics Conference (eds Chan, Y. W., Leung, A. F., Yang, C. N. & Young, K. 779–799 (World Scientific, Singapore, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  63. Milburn, G. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 2124–2127 (1987).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  64. Sanders, B. C. & Milburn, G. J. Phys. Rev. A45, 1919–1923 (1992).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  65. Avramopoulos, H., French, P. M. W., Williams, J. A. R., New, C. H. & Taylor, J. R. IEEE J. Quant. Electron. QE-24, 1884–1892 (1988).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  66. Watanabe, K., Ishida, Y., Yamamoto, Y., Haus, H. A. & Lai, Y. Phys. Rev. A42, 5667–5674 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  67. Martijn de Sterke, C. & Sipe, J. E. Opt. Lett. 14, 871–873 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  68. McCall, S. & Hahn, E. L. Phys. Rev. 183, 457–485 (1969).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  69. Chiao, R. Y., Deutsch, I. H., Garrison, J. C. & Wright, E. W. in Frontiers in Nonlinear Optics (eds Walther, H., Koroteev, N. & Scully, M. O. 151–182 (IOP, Philadelphia, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  70. Coleman, S. Aspects of Symmetry (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  71. Slusher, R. E. & Yurke, B. IEEE J. Lightwave Technol. 8, 466–477 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  72. Yamamoto, Y. et al. in Progress in Optics XXVIII (ed. Wolf, E.) 89–179 (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  73. Drummond, P. D. & Caves, C. M. in Quantum Measurements in Optics (eds Tombesi, P. & Walls, D. F.) 279–294 (Plenum, New York, 1992).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Queensland, Queensland, 4067, Australia

    P. D. Drummond

  2. IBM Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Rd, San Jose, California, 95120, USA

    R. M. Shelby

  3. NTT Basic Research Laboratories, Musashino-shi, Tokyo, 180, Japan

    S. R. Friberg & Y. Yamamoto

  4. also at the Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Y. Yamamoto

Authors
  1. P. D. Drummond
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. M. Shelby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. R. Friberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Y. Yamamoto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Drummond, P., Shelby, R., Friberg, S. et al. Quantum solitons in optical fibres. Nature 365, 307–313 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/365307a0

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/365307a0

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing