Abstract

Recently we reported the first systematic experiments describing high intensity pulse propagation in fiber Bragg gratings [1-3]. These experiments demonstrated nonlinear pulse compression, and pulse shaping, and also demonstrated the generation and propagation of grating solitons [1]. which exist because of the balancing of nonlinearity of the glass and the strong dispersion of the grating [4-6]. Possibly the most striking feature of these solitons is that they can travel at velocities between zero and the speed of light in the medium. Indeed initial experimental, which were performed in uniform (unchirped) gratings, indicated that the solitons propagated at about 75% of the speed of light in the uniform medium. In this paper we review the nonlinear optics of fiber gratings and in particular discuss the experimental realization of grating solitons. We also discuss two extensions of this work: launching of slow grating solitons in apodized fiber gratings; and experimental studies of modulational instabilities (MIs) in Bragg gratings. Finally we mention the possibility of soliton engineering, through the design of nonuniform gratings.

© 1997 Optical Society of America