1100× optical fiber pulse compression using grating pair and soliton effect at 1.319 μm

We report the first demonstration of two-stage optical fiber pulse compression using the grating pair technique and, successively, the soliton effect. Firstly, 100 ps pulses from a 1.319-μm mode-locked neodymium:yttrium aluminum garnet laser are chirped by a 2-km positive dispersion fiber (zero-dispersion wavelength λ0=1.59 μm) and compressed into 2 ps pulses by a grating pair. Subsequently, the resultant 2 ps pulses are coupled into a 40-m negative dispersion fiber (λ0=1.275 μm) and compressed further into 90 fs pulses via the pulse narrowing effect of high-order soliton propagation. The combined compression factor of 1100 is the largest reported to date using optical fibers.