Optical event horizon-based complete transformation and control of dark solitons

Abstract

We propose a manipulation approach to vary the wave speed, as well as the grayness, of dark solitons under the optical event horizon arising from the interaction between a dark soliton and a probe wave. To the best of our knowledge, the optical event horizon effect is demonstrated for the first time to be capable of inducing a reversible conversion between a black soliton and a gray one. This reversible soliton transformation and control process originates from the intrinsic competition between the probe-induced nonlinear phase shift and the internal phase of the dark soliton. In a cascaded system consisting of two optical event horizons, we also observe the new optical soliton tunneling phenomena where a dark soliton can be reset longitudinally purposely. The results may find applications in information cloaking such as effectively hiding the presence of intermediate fiber section to the receiver.