Abstract

The generation of high-energy pulses with a parabolic intensity profile and a linear chirp in optical fiber amplifiers with normal group velocity dispersion lias been under intense investigation for the past few years. Such parabolic pulses are of practical significance since they can tolerate high nonlinear phase shift while maintaining the parabolic shape and linear chirp, and therefore could avoid the dramatic effect of optical wave-breaking. Such wave-breaking-free pulses, that propagate in a self-similar manner (similaritons) have been generated in rare-earth-doped fiber amplifiers as well as in Raman fiber amplifiers. The first demonstration of a laser cavity operating in the self-similar regime of parabolic pulses was reported by Ilday et al. [1], This resulted in the generation of femtosecond pulses with more than 10 nJ energy from an Yb doped fiber laser and theoretical predictions promote the possibility of some hundreds of nanojoules

© 2007 IEEE