Technique for the measurement of picosecond optical pulses using a non-linear fiber loop mirror and an optical power meter

A method for measuring picosecond pulse width by using only fiber components and optical power meters is presented. We have shown that the output power splitting ratio of a non-linear fiber loop mirror can be used to extract the full-width half maximum of the optical pulse, assuming a known slowly varying envelope shape and internal phase structure. Theoretical evaluation was carried out using both self-phase and cross-phase modulation approaches, with the latter showing a twofold sensitivity increase, as expected. In the experimental validation, pulses from an actively fiber mode-locked laser at the repetition rate of 10 GHz were incrementally temporally dispersed by using SMF-28 fiber, and then successfully measured over a pulse width range of 2-10 ps, with a resolution of 0.25 ps. This range can be easily extended from 0.25 to 40 ps by selecting different physical setup parameters. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement