Abstract

Optical phase conjugation has been widely studied for applications in distortion correction at spatial or temporal domains.¹ For temporal domain applications, it has been shown that the broadened optical pulses due to group-velocity dispersion (GVD) and self-phase modulation (SPM) can be exactly restored to their original shapes with a perfect phase conjugate mirror.^2,3 Here we propose and analyze a novel approach to compress various kinds of optical pulses with a single mode fiber and a low reflectivity phase conjugate mirror. When a short optical pulse with enough intensity propagates in a single mode fiber, new spectral components as well as a nearly linear chirping in frequency are generated due to the effects of SPM and GVD. By placing a low reflectivity phase conjugator at the end of the fiber, the broadened pulse is reflected back to the fiber with a reversed chirp and a lowered intensity. After propagating in a fiber of slightly longer length, the pulse can be compressed up to 10 times from its original width. The compression ratio, optimal length as well as various kinds of wave forms are investigated and the results will be presented.

© 1993 Optical Society of America