Shortening of light pulses in a glass-fiber amplifier

It was demonstrated experimentally that propagation of light pulses in active neodymium-doped glass fibers reduced the duration of the amplified pulses almost twofold in fibers 1-m long. A study of the amplification of a series of ultrashort laser pulses carried out using a glass-fiber quantum amplifier showed that the main cause of reduction in the duration of nanosecond light pulses was recombination of short-lived color centers because of the absorption of the leading edge. The shortening of light pulses was studied at different rates of excitation of active fiber waveguides.