Abstract

Frequency-resolved optical gating is used to characterize the propagation of intense femtosecond pulses in a nonlinear, dispersive medium. The combined effects of diffraction, normal dispersion, and cubic nonlinearity lead to pulse splitting. The role of the phase of the input pulse is studied. The results are compared with the predictions of a three-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

© 1998 Optical Society of America

Polarization instability of femtosecond pulse splitting in normally dispersive self-focusing media

J. Schjødt-Eriksen, J. V. Moloney, E. M. Wright, Q. Feng, and P. L. Christiansen
Opt. Lett. 26(2) 78-80 (2001)

Complete pulse characterization at 1.5 µm by cross-phase modulation in optical fibers

M. D. Thomson, J. M. Dudley, L. P. Barry, and J. D. Harvey
Opt. Lett. 23(20) 1582-1584 (1998)

Amplitude and phase characterization of 4.5-fs pulses by frequency-resolved optical gating

Andrius Baltuška, Maxim S. Pshenichnikov, and Douwe A. Wiersma
Opt. Lett. 23(18) 1474-1476 (1998)

Breakdown of the slowly varying envelope approximation in the self-focusing of ultrashort pulses

Jinendra K. Ranka and Alexander L. Gaeta
Opt. Lett. 23(7) 534-536 (1998)

Dynamics of self-focused femtosecond laser pulses in the near and far fields

Alex A. Zozulya and Scott A. Diddams
Opt. Express 4(9) 336-343 (1999)