Abstract

By taking advantage of the well-developed models for nonlinear pulse propagation in optical fibers, we indirectly measure picosecond laser pulse characteristics such as chirp and pedestal energy. Measurements of output pulse-width versus launched power through a short test fiber, along with the rime bandwidth product of the launched pulse, are fed into a routine to find the best-fit pulse parameters. We apply this technique to characterize 3.5-ps pulses at 1.54 μm from a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser. We first propagate the pulses through 200 m of test fiber to extract the parameters, and then confirm the fit’s accuracy by comparing predicted and measured propagation through 25 km of fiber.

© 1996 Optical Society of America