Nonlinear pulse shaping in optical fibers : a versatile tool for ultrafast photonics and fundamental wave propagation studies
Résumé
The study of the combination of Kerr nonlinearity with dispersion in optical fibers has been stimulating much interest since the 80s. If such a combination can seriously impair the quality of high speed optical transmissions, it can on the contrary become an attractive solution to generate new temporal and spectral waveforms. We explain in this talk how to take advantage of the progressive temporal and spectral reshapings that occur upon propagation. We base our discussion on several experimental results obtained in the last decade at the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne. Examples exploiting both the normal and anomalous regimes of dispersion will be analyzed in the theoretical context of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In order to provide a rapid but pedagogical overview of the vast possibilities of nonlinear shaping in optical fibers, we will more precisely describe the following experiments carried out at telecommunication wavelengths :
-The generation of parabolic and triangular temporal waveforms in normally dispersive fibers.
- The generaton of high-quality ultrashort pulses in the regime of anomalous dispersion.
- The generation of optical rogue events