FEMTOSECOND ERBIUM-DOPED OPTICAL FIBER AMPLIFIER

A gain of 9 dB has been obtained in an erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier for input pulses with a peak power of 30 W, an average power of 30 μW (-15.2 dBm), and a pulse width of 260 fs. When the input peak power is increased in the soliton power regime, an adiabatic soliton narrowing occurs due to the optical gain. By increasing the pump power further, an optical gain enhanced soliton self-frequency shift dominates, which is due to the excitation of high-order soliton. Thus, soliton narrowing from 250 to 60 fs is observed.