Dispersion-insensitive low-coherent pulses emerging from nonlinear polarization switching

Abstract

We have experimentally investigated low-repetition nanosecond pulses delivered from an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser operating in ultra-large anomalous dispersion regime. The output pulses with rectangular profile and Gaussian spectrum almost keep invariable when they propagate through either normal- or anomalous-dispersion fibers. After nanosecond pulses are amplified via a two-stage EDF amplifier, they are broken up and exhibited as flatly broadened supercontinuum from 1520 to 1700 nm if amplified pulses are launched into a 10-km single-mode fiber, whereas the pulses retain the same duration with a broadband supercontinuum from 1200 to 1750 nm if they are input into a 100-m highly-nonlinear low-dispersion photonic-crystal fiber (PCF). The experimental observations demonstrate that the nanosecond pulses result from nonlinear polarization switching and can be regarded as dispersion-insensitive low-coherent pulses rather than compressible pulses.