Patent ID: 7957619

Claim:
An optical transmission system for supporting the propagation of femtosecond optical pulses, the optical transmission system comprising a first section of fiber supporting the propagation of a chirped optical pulse, the first section of fiber exhibiting a first effective area A eff-1 at the operating wavelength; a first graded-index fiber lens coupled to the output of the first section of fiber; a second section of fiber coupled to the output of the first graded-index fiber lens, the second section of fiber exhibiting a second effective area A eff-2 greater than the first effective area A eff-1 , and further exhibiting a dispersion D and a length L selected to compress the chirped optical pulse, the first graded-index fiber lens providing mode matching between the first and second sections of fiber over a bandwidth of greater than 2 nanometers, the bandwidth defined at full-width half-maximum; a second graded-index fiber lens coupled to the output of the second section of fiber; and an optical transmission fiber coupled to the output of the second graded-index fiber lens, wherein the second graded-index fiber lens provides mode matching between the second section of fiber and the optical transmission fiber such that the optical transmission fiber supports the propagation of a femtosecond optical pulse.