Patent ID: 8306378

Claim:
An optical pulse generating apparatus for outputting an ultrashort pulse, the apparatus comprising: an optical pulse source; and an optical pulse compressor that compresses an input pulse from the optical source, the optical pulse compressor comprising: a first compressor comprising: a chirp unit comprising a normal dispersion fiber that provides a positive chirp to an input pulse; and a dispersion compensator comprising an anomalous dispersion fiber that compensates for the positive chirp provided to the input pulse from the chirp unit, wherein a nonlinear coefficient and an absolute value of a second-order group-velocity dispersion of the anomalous dispersion fiber that forms the dispersion compensator is set such that a soliton order becomes one or more, and a fiber length of the anomalous dispersion fiber is equal to or smaller than a length required for optical soliton formation; and a second compressor formed of a different anomalous dispersion fiber of which a nonlinear coefficient is higher than a nonlinear coefficient of the dispersion compensator, wherein a nonlinear coefficient of the dispersion compensator is 0.5 W −1 km −1 or less.