Abstract
An important application of nonlinear fiber optics consists of compressing optical pulses. This chapter provides an overview of the theories and experimental issues related to the study of pulse-compression techniques. There are two kinds of compressors commonly used for pulse compression. The grating-fiber compressors use a fiber with normal group-velocity dispersion (GVD) followed by a grating pair. The soliton-effect compressors make use of higher-order solitons forming when self-phase modulation (SPM) and anomalous GVD occur simultaneously. The use of fiber gratings for pulse compression and the technique of chirped-pulse amplification is also discussed in this chapter. The basic idea behind optical pulse compression is borrowed from chirp radar, where chirped pulses at microwave frequencies are compressed by passing them through a dispersive delay line. The basic idea behind chirped-pulse amplification consists of chirping and stretching the pulse before it is amplified. The use of chirped-pulse amplification has resulted in the advent of tabletop terawatt laser systems in which mode-locked pulses emitted from solid-state lasers are amplified to obtain picosecond, or even femtosecond, pulses with terawatt peak powers.
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