12× pulse compression using optical fibers

We report a factor of 12 compression of the 5.4-ps, 1-kW pulses from a mode-locked dye laser. The pulses were frequency broadened and linearly chirped by the combined action of self-phase modulation and group velocity dispersion during passage through a 30-m single-mode optical fiber. The fiber output pulses were then compressed to 450-fs, 3-kW pulses by passage through a diffraction grating based dispersive delay line. These short pulses were tunable over the 300-Å range of the laser dye.