CHARACTERIZING PULSE-PROPAGATION IN OPTICAL FIBERS AROUND 1550 NM USING FREQUENCY-RESOLVED OPTICAL GATING

The ultrashort pulse measurement technique of frequency-resolved optic al gating (FROG) has been used to characterize the propagation of pico second pulses at wavelengths around 1550 nm in a variety of different optical fibers used in communications applications. In this paper, we review the use of the FROG technique for ultrashort pulse measurements , discussing in particular several practical issues of importance for accurate results at wavelengths around 1550 nm. We describe the use of FROG measurements to characterize pulse distortion in standard, dispe rsion-shifted, and erbium-doped optical fiber, and show how they provi de direct measurements of complex intensity and phase evolution arisin g from the interplay of fiber nonlinearity and dispersion. We also dis cuss the application of the FROG technique to accurately measure the d ispersive and the nonlinear parameters of optical fibers, and we prese nt results for standard single-mode fiber in good agreement with speci fications, (C) 1998 Academic Press.