Fast compression of pure-quartic solitons in nonlinear optical fibers via shortcuts to adiabaticity

Pure-quartic solitons (PQSs) supported by negative fourth-order dispersion have recently attracted considerable interest. In this work, we study both adiabatic and nonadiabatic compression of PQSs in nonlinear optical fibers with pure quartic dispersion in the presence of distributed gain and loss. Within a variational framework, we show that, for weak constant gain, the adiabatic compression dynamics can be mapped onto the motion of an effective particle in a slowly deformed potential, providing an intuitive physical picture. To overcome the long propagation distance required by conventional adiabatic condition, we exploit shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) based on inverse engineering and derive analytical gain-loss profiles, with appropriate boundary conditions that realize a prescribed fast compression over a shorter propagation distance. Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical predictions and indicate a minimum propagation distance below which noticeable waveform distortion emerges. Compared with standard adiabatic references, the STA design significantly reduces the required compression distance while maintaining high-fidelity PQS evolution.