Abstract

Short pulses in infrared are useful as in situ probes for devices fabricated on electro-optic semiconductors like GaAs.¹ Sources of such pulses are under development with wavelengths extending to 1.6 μm.² The most prominent technique currently used to achieve picosecond pulses in the IR is compression of Nd:YAG 1.064 μm in a fiber grating pair.^3,4 It has been shown that propagation of short (100 ps) pulses through long (2 km) lengths of monomode fiber can lead to picosecond pulses with very low energy outside the central intensity spike. This method of compression makes use of the positive dispersion available in glass fibers at 1.064 μm. In an effort to extend in situ electro-optic sampling far below the bandgap of GaAs or to the sample in InP wavelengths longer than 1.35 μm are necessary, but the dispersion in glass fibers also begins to change sign. At color-center wavelengths from 1.4 to 2.3 μm there is no existing technique for such wing suppression.

© 1987 Optical Society of America