Patent ID: 7817681

Claim:
A pulse-stretching optical fiber (“PS fiber”) for temporally stretching optical pulses, comprising: a segmented core having a central core region with a relative refractive index Δ 1 , an inner annular core region surrounding the central core region and having a relative refractive index Δ 2 where Δ 2 <Δ 1 , and an outer ring region surrounding the inner annular core region and having a relative refractive index Δ 3 wherein Δ 3 >Δ 2 ; a cladding region surrounding the segmented core and having a relative refractive Δ 4 wherein Δ 2 <Δ 4 <Δ 1 , Δ 3 ; and a chromatic dispersion ≦−80 ps/nm/km, and a chromatic dispersion slope in the range between −0.1 and 0 ps/nm 2 /km at a target wavelength λ T .