Numerical study of the Raman effect and its impact on soliton-dragging logic gates

Recent experiments in birefringent optical fibers in which a signal pulse in one polarization is used to switch a control pulse in another polarization are affected by the Raman self-frequency shift. These experiments are modeled numerically, with the experimentally measured Raman profiles used as input to the simulations. Both parallel and perpendicular Raman gain are kept. The effect of keeping the full Raman response rather than just an often-used linear approximation is discussed. The experimental results are in good agreement with theory, although some discrepancies exist. The possibility that these discrepancies could be due to errors in the measurements of the low-frequency portion of the perpendicular Raman gain is examined and ruled out. Other possible sources of this discrepancy are then discussed.