Nonlinear polarization evolution of ultrashort pulses in polarization maintaining fibers

We examine properties of an ultrashort laser pulse propagating through an artificial Saturable Absorber based on Nonlinear Polarization Evolution device which has been realized with Polarization Maintaining fibers only (PM NPE). We study and compare in-line and Faraday Mirror geometries showing that the latter is immune to errors in the PM NPE construction. Experimental results for the transmission measurements of the PM NPE setup for different input linear polarization angles and various input pulse powers are presented. We show that PM NPE topology is of crucial importance for controlling the properties of the output pulse as it rules the contribution of cross-phase modulation to an overall nonlinear phase change. We also demonstrate an excellent agreement between the numerical model and experimental results. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement