CHINESE JOURNAL OF PHYSICS VOL. 41, NO.

2 APRIL 2003

Effect of Fiber Chromatic Dispersion on Incident Super-Gaussian Pulse

Transmission in Single-Mode Fibers

Guangqiong Xia, Zhengmao Wu, and Jianwei Wu

Department of Physics, Southwest Normal University,
Chongqing 400715, China
(Received July 8, 2002)

Taking into account the chromatic dispersion, the evolution of an incident super-Gaussian
pulse during propagation in single-mode fibers has been investigated numerically. The results
show that for an incident super-Gaussian pulse, with steep leading and trailing edges, its
shape undergoes a variation from near-rectangular to two-peak and, finally, to single-peak.
Meanwhile its peak intensity increases at first then, after passing a maximum, finally decreases
monotonically.

PACS. 42.81.i Fiber optics.

PACS. 42.25.Bs Wave propagation.

I. Introduction

The Gaussian model, which assumes that an incident pulse has a Gaussian profile, has
been widely used to investigate optical pulse transmission in fibers [1-3]. At present, signal
pulses produced by directly modulated laser diodes have been used in optical fiber communication
systems [4-5]. The experiments reveal that the optical pulses from directly modulated laser diodes
are far from Gaussian and have near-rectangular temporal profiles, with much sharper leading and
trailing edges [6], so that a super-Gaussian model, which assumes that an incident optical pulse
has a super-Gaussian profile, may be more suitable [7]. In Ref. [7], for an unchirped incident
super-Gaussian pulse transmission in a fiber, a two-peak temporal profile was observed. However,
further detailed investigation has not been given.
Based on the above analysis, in this paper we investigate in detail incident super-Gaussian
pulse propagation in conventional single-mode fibers, taking into account the fiber chromatic
dispersion. Some interesting phenomena have been found. In order to stress the chromatic
dispersion, the fiber loss, and the nonlinear effects (which in fact are negligible for an optical
pulse with a 1.55 m carrier wavelength, low intensity, and broad pulse width) have been ignored.

II. Theory

For an optical pulse propagating in a single-mode fiber, its normalized amplitude U (z; T )
satisfies [8]
@U 1 @ 2U i @ 3U
i = 2 2 + 3 3 ; (1)
@z 2 @T 6 @T

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OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA
VOL. 41 GUANGQIONG XIA, ZHENGMAO WU, AND JIANWEI WU 117

where z is the propagation distance, T (= t z=vg ) is measured in a frame of reference moving

with the pulse at the group velocity vg , 2 is the group velocity dispersion (GVD) parameter, and
3 is the higher-order dispersion. This equation can be solved by using the Fourier method so
that
Z 1
1 ~ i 2 i 3
U (z; T ) = U (0; !) exp 2 ! z + 3 ! z i!T d!; (2)
2 1 2 6
where U~ (0; !) is the Fourier transform of the incident field U (0; T ), which can be given by
Z 1
~
U (0; !) = U (0; T ) exp(i!T )dT: (3)
1
For an incident super-Gaussian pulse (for simplicity the pulse chirp has not been considered
here) the field can be written as
" #
1 T 2m
U (0; T ) = exp ; (4)
2 T0
where T0 describes the half-width (at the 1/e intensity point) and the parameter m controls the
sharpness of the leading and trailing edges. For m = 1 an incident Gaussian pulse is recovered,
and Eq. (2) can be solved analytically. However, for m > 1, Eq. (2) can be solved only by
numerical simulation. In the following calculation the split-step Fourier method [9] has been
used to investigate the evolution of different super-Gaussian incident pulses in a conventional
single-mode fiber by selecting different values for the parameter m.

III. Results and discussion

In Fig. 1 the pulse shapes at different propagation distances have been plotted for incident
super-Gaussian pulses with different ms, where (a), (b), (c), and (d) are for m = 2, 3, 4, and 5,
respectively. The other data used in the calculations are: T0 = 100 ps, 2 = 20 ps2 /km (which
is appropriate for a 1.55 m optical communication system employing conventional single-mode
fibers), 3 = 0. In this diagram some interesting phenomena can be found, which are different
from the case for an incident Gaussian pulse transmission. It is well known that, for an incident
Gaussian pulse transmission in a single-mode fiber, only a single peak exists during propagation,
and its peak intensity decreases with the increase of the propagation distance. For an incident
super-Gaussian pulse, it can be seen from this diagram that for m = 2 (see (a)) there exists only
a single peak during propagation; however, for m > 2 (see (b), (c), (d)), two peaks, along with
several sub-peaks between these two, can be observed in the initial propagation distance; they
finally evolve into a single peak. The reason for these phenomena is the GVD. For m = 2,
because the incident pulse has a narrow flat region and gentle edges (even though the leading and
trailing edges are still sharper than that for a Gaussian pulse), it behaves more like a Gaussian
pulse; the GVD leads only to gentler leading and trailing edges. For m > 2, because the incident
pulse has a relatively broad flat distribution with steep leading and trailing edges, the energy
redistribution within the flat region induced by the GVD may result in two peaks, along with
several sub-peaks between them during the initial transmission distance. With the increase of the
transmission distance, a single peak can always be estimated, because the GVD has a tendency to
slow down the pulse edges.
118 EFFECT OF FIBER CHROMATIC DISPERSION ON VOL. 41

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

FIG. 1. Evolution of incident super-Gaussian pulses during propagation in conventional single-mode fibers
for different ms, where (a), (b), (c) and (d) are for m = 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively.

From Fig. 1, it can also be seen that the peak intensities increase in stages for all different
ms, which differs from that for an incident Gaussian pulse. In order to analyze this case in detail,
we include Fig. 2, where the variations in the peak intensities with the propagation distance have
been given for different ms. From this diagram, it can be observed that the peak intensity first
increases tortuously (monotonically for m = 2), then after passing a maximum, it finally decreases
monotonically. This phenomena can be explained as being due to the fact that an incident super-
Gaussian pulse has a relatively flat energy profile with sharp edges. The gentleness of the edges,
induced by the GVD during propagation, may bring about the increase in the peak intensity.
In order to satisfy energy conservation, once the pulse edges are slowed down enough, with an
increase of the propagation distance the peak intensity will decrease monotonically, just as for an
incident Gaussian pulse. From this diagram it can also be found that, for m 3, there can be
one or several tortuous points during the increase peak intensity process. This may be because
two peaks along with several sub-peaks between these two peaks, appear during propagation, as
shown in Fig. 1; the intensity redistribution of these peaks is induced by the GVD results in these
tortuous points.
VOL. 41 GUANGQIONG XIA, ZHENGMAO WU, AND JIANWEI WU 119

FIG. 2. Variation of peak intensity with propagation distance for incident super-Gaussian pulses with
different ms.

FIG. 3. Intensity variation of the pulse center with propagation distance for incident super-Gaussian pulses
with different ms.

From Fig. 1 it can be observed that, for m 3, the intensity of the pulses central place
is not the peak intensity during the initial propagation distance, due to the appearance of twin
peaks, while the pulse center is always in a key place. In Fig. 3, the intensity variation of the
pulse center with the propagation distance has been given for different ms. From this diagram,
it can be seen that the intensity of the pulse center experiences several changes, from increase to
decrease due to the energy redistribution induced by the GVD; once the two peaks evolve into a
single peak, the intensity of the pulse center is just the intensity of the single peak.
120 EFFECT OF FIBER CHROMATIC DISPERSION ON VOL. 41

IV. Conclusions

In this paper, using the appropriate parameter values for a 1.55 m optical communication
system, the evolution of incident unchirped super-Gaussian, pulses, with different leading and
trailing edges during propagation in conventional single-mode fibers, has been investigated nu-
merically, after taking into account the fiber chromatic dispersion. Furthermore a two peak shape,
along with several sub-peaks between the two and an increase of the peak intensity, have been
observed during the propagation process; this is very different from that for an incident Gaussian
pulse.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support received from the Ministry of National
Education of the Peoples Republic of China and the Commission of the Science and Technology
of Chongqing City, the Peoples Republic of China.

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