title: Spectral compression of femtosecond pulses in photonic crystal fibers.
abstract: We demonstrate efficient spectral compression of femtosecond pulses near the zero-dispersion wavelength in nonlinear photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). The highest measured compression factor is 21, in which case the spectral brightness increases by a factor of 5. We numerically model the pulse propagation and find good agreement with the experiment. We argue that the fibers studied allow for spectral narrowing of more than 2 orders of magnitude. With dispersion-shifted PCFs, efficient spectral compression can take place across the visible and near-infrared part of the spectrum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. esbenra@phys.au.dk
authors.forename: Esben Ravn
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Andresen
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thøgersen
authors.forename: Søren Rud
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Keiding