Optical pulse compression schemes that use nonlinear Bragg gratings

Nonlinear optical pulse compression of picosecond pulses typically requires long lengths of optical fiber and multiple components. Periodic structures, such as fiber Bragg gratings, are highly dispersive at wavelengths outside of the photonic bandgap. This implies that such grating can be used as very short all-fiber compressors. In this paper a number of such compression schemes are reviewed involving uniform and nonuniform fiber Bragg gratings, relying on both soliton and nonsoliton compression principles. Experimental results supporting the corresponding underlying theory are also presented. Finally, an extension of one of the compression schemes is shown, which allows the generation of adjustable high-repetition rate soliton trains.