title: Pulse compression using a tapered microstructure optical fiber.
abstract: We calculate the pulse compression in a tapered microstructure optical fiber with four layers of holes. We show that the primary limitation on pulse compression is the loss due to mode leakage. As a fiber's diameter decreases due to the tapering, so does the air-hole diameter, and at a sufficiently small diameter the guided mode loss becomes unacceptably high. For the four-layer geometry we considered, a compression factor of 10 can be achieved by a pulse with an initial FWHM duration of 3 ps in a tapered fiber that is 28 m long. We find that there is little difference in the pulse compression between a linear taper profile and a Gaussian taper profile. More layers of air-holes allows the pitch to decrease considerably before losses become unacceptable, but only a moderate increase in the degree of pulse compression is obtained.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Brian S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: Curtis R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Menyuk
authors.forename: Jinchae
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Carruthers
authors.forename: Barbara M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Thierry F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Taunay
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Friebele