In this paper, we investigate the inhomogeneous higher-order nonlinear Schr¨odinger (NLS) equation governing the femtosecond optical pulse propagation in inhomogeneous fibers using gauge transformation and generate bright soliton solutions from the associated linear eigenvalue problem. We observe that the amplitude of the bright solitons depends on the group velocity dispersion (GVD) and the self-phase modulation (SPM) while its velocity is dictated by the third-order dispersion (TOD) and GVD. We have shown how the interplay between GVD, SPM, and TOD can be profitably exploited to change soliton width, amplitude (intensity), shape, phase, velocity, and energy for an effective femtosecond soliton management. The highlight of our paper is the identification of ‘optical similaritons’ arising by virtue of higher-order effects in the femtosecond regime.
