Measurement of the soliton number in guiding media through continuum generation.
No general approach is available yet to measure directly the ratio between chromatic dispersion and the nonlinear coefficient, and hence the soliton number for a given optical pulse, in an arbitrary guiding medium. Here we solve this problem using continuum generation. We experimentally demonstrate our method in polarization-maintaining and single-mode fibers with positive and negative chromatic dispersion. Our technique also offers new opportunities to determine the chromatic dispersion of guiding media over a broad spectral range while pumping at a fixed wavelength. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America
General measurement technique of the ratio between chromatic dispersion and the nonlinear coefficient
Measuring the nonlinear coefficient γ of any guiding medium, regardless of the sign and magnitude of its group-velocity dispersion parameter β 2 , is challenging because of the lack of general solutions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE). Indeed, existing approaches typically need to disregard chromatic-dispersion effects to determine γ [1] . Here we propose an all-encompassing approach to measure the ratio β 2 /γ and prove our method in polarization-maintaining (PM) and single-mode (SM) fibers with positive and negative β 2 .