Higher order chirp compensation of femtosecond mode-locked semiconductor lasers using optical fibers with different group-velocity dispersions

Higher order chirp compensation of optical short pulses by using two types of optical fibers with different group-velocity dispersions was theoretically and experimentally investigated in detail. By optimizing the lengths of two types of optical fibers, both second- and third-order dispersion of chirped optical pulses were found to be simultaneously compensated. Pulse-compression experiments with chirped optical pulses from a mode-locked laser diode demonstrated using this technique attained nearly transform-limited, 500-fs pulse generation.