Patent ID: 7844146

Claim:
An optical pulse compressor comprising: a first section of fiber exhibiting a first effective area A eff-1 at an operating wavelength, said first section of fiber supporting the propagation of a chirped optical pulse; a graded-index fiber lens coupled to the output of the first section of fiber, wherein the graded-index fiber lens exhibits an approximately parabolic-shaped graded index profile; and a second section of fiber exhibiting a second effective area A eff-2 at the operating wavelength, where A eff-2 >A eff-1 , and further exhibiting a dispersion D and a length L selected to compress the chirped optical pulse, said second section of fiber coupled to the output of the graded-index fiber lens, wherein the graded-index fiber lens provides mode matching between said first and second sections of fiber over a bandwidth of greater than 2 nanometers, the bandwidth is defined at full-width half-maximum.