Experimental evidence of pseudoperiodical soliton propagation in dispersion-managed links

A new technique for measuring chirp evolution of Gaussian-like pulses transmitted on single-mode fiber is presented. It is used in a recirculation loop experiment to characterize propagation in anomalous-dispersion regime over megametrical distances. In-quadrature periodical variations of the two characteristic parameters of pulses (i.e., spectral width and chirp) are measured versus distance for different values of prechirp and in-line power. This constitutes the first experimental evidence of pseudoperiodical soliton propagation in dispersion-managed links. It also demonstrates that the prechirp is a key element for the control of nonlinearity as predicted by the theory.