Fedor Mitschke, a German physicist, was involved in pioneering work on fiberoptic solitons at Bell Laboratories in 1985-1986. He has held teaching positions at universities in Hannover, Munich, Münster, and Rostock (all in Germany). Since 1997 he holds the chair for optics at the Institute of Physics at Rostock University. This book grew out of lectures he gave at Hannover, Münster, Rostock, and as visiting professor in Luleå.