Development of solitons in composite right- and left-handed transmission lines periodically loaded with Schottky varactors

The characteristics of composite right- and left-handed (CRLH) transmission lines periodically loaded with Schottky varactors are discussed in relation to the development of solitons. CRLH lines are highly dispersive and thus, when appropriately designed, compensate the effect of nonlinearity introduced by the Schottky varactors to support solitons. The reductive perturbation method applied to the transmission equation of nonlinear CRLH lines leads to the observation that the nonlinear Schrodinger equation governs the wave property at long wavelengths. The condition of the Schottky CRLH lines for the development of solitons, together with several results of the numerical finite-difference time-domain calculations, is discussed.