High repetition rate pulse train generation at GHz repetition rates from nonlinear breather reshaping in standard single mode fibre

Abstract

We revisit the use of nonlinear pulse compression for ultrafast pulse train generation in terms of the evolution dynamics of analytic breather solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We discuss to what degree the analytic formalism of Akhmediev Breather solutions can provide improved insight into the compression process, providing a useful complement to the more widely employed approach to pulse train optimization using numerical simulations. We also report experiments where nonlinear reshaping of a directly modulated DFB laser diode signal at 1550 nm in standard single mode fibre is used to generate a train of sub-20 ps compressed pulses at 11.7 GHz. Characterization using a Picosolve sampling scope reveals directly the expected compressed pulse and pedestal features.