Robust and compact PCF-based tunable femtosecond soliton source

Abstract

We present a high-speed wavelength tunable photonic crystal fiber-based source capable of generating tunable femtosecond solitons in the infrared region. Through measurements and numerical simulation, we show that both the pulsewidth and the spectral width of the output pulses remain nearly constant over the entire tuning range from 860 to 1160 nm. This remarkable behavior is observed even when pump pulses are heavily chirped (7400 fs 2 ), which allows to avoid bulky compensation optics, or the use of another fiber, for dispersion compensation usually required by the tuning device.