Optimized amplification of femtosecond optical pulses by dispersion management for octave-spanning optical frequency comb generation

We report a method for optimizing the amplification of femtosecond optical pulses by using dispersion management. The amount of dispersion provided to the seed optical pulse of an erbium-doped fiber (EBF) has an optimal region that enhances the output power of an amplifier. The power enhancement is accompanied by spectral broadening, which originates from adiabatic narrowing in the erbium-doped fiber. The amplified optical pulses can be used to generate an octave-spanning optical frequency comb (OFC) by employing a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF).