Soliton robustness to the polarization-mode dispersion in optical fibers

The influences of chromatic dispersion, coupling length, and soliton energy on the soliton robustness to polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) are investigated numerically. We find that both chromatic dispersion and soliton energy have significant effects on the soliton robustness to PMD, and by optimizing chromatic dispersion and soliton energy, soliton pulse broadening can be depressed to within 10% even when the differential group delay is about twice the input pulse width. In addition, a recent experimental result on soliton robustness is numerically verified.