It is shown that asymmetric waveguides with gain and loss can support a stable propagation of optical beams. This means that the propagation constants of modes of the corresponding complex optical potential are real. A class of such waveguides is found from a relation between two spectral problems. A particular example of an asymmetric waveguide, described by the hyperbolic functions, is analyzed. The existence and stability of linear modes and of continuous families of nonlinear modes are demonstrated.

Finite-dimensional dynamical models for solitons of the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE) are derived. The models describe the evolution of the pulse parameters, such as the maximum amplitude, pulse width, and chirp. A clear correspondence between attractors of the finite-dimensional dynamical systems and localized waves of the continuous dissipative system is demonstrated. It is shown that stationary solitons of the CGLE correspond to fixed points, while pulsating solitons are associated with stable limit cycles. The models show that a transformation from a stationary soliton to a pulsating soliton is the result of a Hopf bifurcation in the reduced dynamical system. The appearance of moving fronts (kinks) in the CGLE is related to the loss of stability of the limit cycles. Bifurcation boundaries and pulse behavior in the regions between the boundaries, for a wide range of system parameters, are found from analysis of the reduced dynamical models. We also provide a comparison between various models and their correspondence to the exact results.

Stationary to pulsating soliton bifurcation analysis of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE) is presented. The analysis is based on a reduction from an infinite-dimensional dynamical dissipative system to a finite-dimensional model. Stationary solitons, with constant amplitude and width, are associated with fixed points in the model. For the first time, pulsating solitons are shown to be stable limit cycles in the finite-dimensional dynamical system. The boundaries between the two types of solutions are obtained approximately from the reduced model. These boundaries are reasonably close to those predicted by direct numerical simulations of the CGLE.

Pulse compression and pulse-train generation are demonstrated by use of kilowatt 580 ps pulses generated by a compact (15 cm x 3 cm x 3 cm) microchip Q-switched laser followed by a fiber Bragg grating. A 12-fold pulse compression to 45 ps with five times peak power enhancement is achieved at 1.4 kW through soliton effect compression in the fiber grating. At 2.5 kW, modulational instability leads to a train of high-contrast sub-100 ps pulses. These demonstrations take advantage of the ultrastrong dispersion at frequencies close to the edge of the photonic bandgap. Experimental results are discussed in the context of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation and are compared with simulations of the nonlinear coupled-mode equations.