Self-pulsing GaAs laser for fiber-dispersion measurements

Internal self-pulsing of commercially available GaAs lasers produces pulses as short as 100 ps. The simplicity and versatility of such devices make them very useful for fiber-dispersion studies. We describe pulse-transmission measurements in 178 m of a liquid-core fiber and explain the considerable pulse broadening (11 ns at the pulse base) in terms of mode delay and mode mixing.