High-degree low-pedestal pulse compression using cascade of single-mode fibers and an onlinear optical loop mirror

A high-degree low-pedestal pulse compression scheme is presented. The scheme is a three-step compression configuration. It employs an anomalously dispersive single-mode fiber (SMF) as the first compression stage. At the second stage, another anomalously dispersive SMF is used for further compression. After the first two stages of compression, the compressed pulses usually suffer from undesired pedestal generation due to soliton-effect compression. At the final stage, a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) is adopted for simultaneous compression and pedestal reduction. The numerical results show that the pulse can be effectively compressed through cascaded compression and its pedestal can be efficiently suppressed by the NOLM. The three-stage pulse compression with a NOLM can improve the compressed pulse quality compared to that without a NOLM. The proposed pulse compression method can achieve high-degree low-pedestal pulse compression and provides a feasible and a much simpler design in practice.