Generalized description of spectral incoherent solitons

Spectral incoherent solitons (SIS) refer to an incoherent solitonic structure that only can be identified in the frequency domain and which is sustained by noninstantaneous Raman-like nonlinearities. We provide a generalized formulation of SIS by considering the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation. We show that nonlinear dispersive effects (e.g., self-steepening) dramatically affect the structure of SIS, in particular by significantly decelerating their spectral velocity in frequency space. The wave turbulence description of the problem reveals an underlying self-organization process: the soliton trajectory in frequency space is selected in such a way that it allows the system to self-organize into a stationary SIS state. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America