Akhmediev breather evolution in optical fiber for realistic initial conditions

We study numerically Akhmediev breather dynamics in optical fibers under initial conditions that do not correspond to an ideal infinitesimal modulation on a plane wave. We examine two modifications that are commonly encountered in realistic experiments: (i) a finite-amplitude (not necessarily weak) initial modulation; (ii) the use of pulsed excitation. In the first case, we derive an expression for the propagation distance required to generate a train of compressed breather pulses. In the second case, we show that breather dynamics with pulsed excitation can be interpreted in terms of local breather states at different points on the pulse envelope.

► We study numerically Akhmediev breather dynamics in optical fibers.
► We investigate the effects imposed by non-ideal excitation conditions.
► A general recipe for the generation of ultra-fast pulse trains is presented.
► Akhmediev breather formalism is extended to the pulsed regime.