High-repetition-rate soliton-train generation using fiber Bragg gratings.

ABSTRACT

We propose a high-repetition-rate soliton-train source based on adiabatic compression of a dual-frequency optical signal in nonuniform fiber Bragg gratings. As the signal propagates through the grating, it is reshaped into a train of Bragg solitons whose repetition rate is predetermined by the frequency of initial sinusoidal modulation. We develop an approximate analytical model to predict the width of compressed soliton-like pulses and to provide conditions for adiabatic compression. We demonstrate numerically the formation of a 40-GHz train of 2.6-ps pulses and find that the numerical results are in good agreement with the predictions of our analytical model. The scheme relies on the dispersion provided by the grating, which can be up to six orders of magnitude larger than of fiber and makes it possible to reduce the fiber length significantly.