Intermediate self-similar solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with an arbitrary longitudinal gain profile

We study pulse propagation in a normal-dispersion optical fibre amplifier with an arbitrary longitudinal gain profile by self-similarity techniques. We show the functional form of the development of low-amplitude wings on the parabolic pulse, which are associated with the evolution of an arbitrary input pulse to the asymptotic parabolic pulse solution. It is found that for the increasing gain the amplifier output corresponding to the input Gaussian pulse converges to the asymptotic parabolic pulse solution more quickly than the output obtained with the input hyperbolic secant pulse, whereas for the decreasing gain the input pulse profiles have nearly no effect on the speed of convergence to the parabolic pulse solution. These theoretical results are confirmed by numerical simulations.