Second-order theory for self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation in optical fibers

The authors develop a second-order perturbation technique for the study of self-phase modulation (SPM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) effects in optical fibers. When the dispersion distance is much shorter than the nonlinear length, it is found that the difference between the first- and second-order solution is negligible. However, as the dispersion distance increases, nonlinearity becomes a stronger perturbation, and the first-order theory is not adequate to describe the SPM effects. However, the results obtained using the second-order perturbation technique is in good agreement with numerical simulations even when the dispersion distance is longer than the nonlinear length. When pulses of different channels are copropagating in a fiber, they undergo amplitude distortion and timing shift due to XPM. The perturbation technique presented in this paper accounts for both amplitude distortion and timing shift of a pulse due to XPM.