Quasi-solitons and stable superluminal opto-acoustic pulses in Brillouin scattering

Abstract: We theoretically and numerically study the evolution of soliton-like waves supported by stimulated Brillouin scattering. First, the emergence and unusual behaviour of resonant solitary waves are investigated for both backward and forward three wave interactions. We find that these waves can be characterized by the ratio between the optical and acoustic damping coefficients. We also examine a second class of non-resonant anti-symmetric soliton-like waves, which have a more complicated pulse shape than traditional solitons. These waves are superluminal, with pulse velocities that can be tuned by the input Stokes and pump fields. We discuss the excitation of these types of waves and the physical conditions required for their observation.