Short pulse generation by higher order soliton-effect compression: effects of optical fiber characteristics

The effects of optical fiber characteristics on higher order soliton-effect pulse compression are investigated. We show that, for the compression of pulses with widths in the range of a few picoseconds or less, stimulated Raman scattering and third order dispersion result in severe degradation of the optimum compression ratio F/sub opt/, while self-steepening has negligible effect. The initial pulse width dependence and the group velocity dispersion dependence of F/sub opt/ are investigated, leading to the identification of regimes that maximize F/sub opt/ and minimize the compressed pulse width. The effects of stimulated Raman scattering and third order dispersion on the quality of the compressed pulses are also investigated.