Abstract

The propagation of subpicosecond pulses in optical fibers in the vicinity of the zero dispersion wavelength is investigated. Although the input powers are sufficient to generate solitons of up to tenth order, the formation of these solitons is not observed. Instead, the input pulse breaks up temporally and spectrally after an initial stage of narrowing. Fundamental solitons are formed in this way with pulse widths of the order of 55 fs. These solitons subsequently experience the soliton self-frequency shift¹ thereby increasing their wavelength and duration.

© 1987 Optical Society of America