Complete pulse characterization at 1.5 mum by cross-phase modulation in optical fibers

Cross-phase modulation in optical fibers has been used for complete characterization of ultrashort pulses by a modified frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) measurement technique. This technique has been used for characterization of picosecond pulses at 1.5mum with energy as low as 24 pJ, and the results are in excellent agreement with second-harmonic generation (SHG)-FROG characterization. The use of an optical waveguide gives measurement sensitivity comparable with that of SHG-FROG but without any temporal ambiguity in the retrieved pulse.