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---
title: "Dispersive broadening"
sort_title: "Dispersive broadening"
date: 2021-02-27
categories:
- Physics
- Optics
- Fiber optics
layout: "concept"
---
In optical fibers, **dispersive broadening** is a linear effect
where group velocity dispersion (GVD) "smears out" a pulse in the time domain
due to the different group velocities of its frequencies,
since pulses always have a nonzero width in the $$\omega$$-domain.
No new frequencies are created.
A pulse envelope $$A(z, t)$$ inside a fiber must obey the nonlinear Schrödinger equation,
where the parameters $$\beta_2$$ and $$\gamma$$ respectively
control dispersion and nonlinearity:
$$\begin{aligned}
0
= i \pdv{A}{z} - \frac{\beta_2}{2} \pdvn{2}{A}{t} + \gamma |A|^2 A
\end{aligned}$$
We set $$\gamma = 0$$ to ignore all nonlinear effects,
and consider a Gaussian initial condition:
$$\begin{aligned}
A(0, t)
= \sqrt{P_0} \exp\!\bigg(\!-\!\frac{t^2}{2 T_0^2}\bigg)
\end{aligned}$$
By [Fourier transforming](/know/concept/fourier-transform/) in $$t$$,
the full analytical solution $$A(z, t)$$ is found to be as follows,
where it can be seen that the amplitude
decreases and the width increases with $$z$$:
$$\begin{aligned}
A(z,t)
= \sqrt{\frac{P_0}{1 - i \beta_2 z / T_0^2}}
\exp\!\bigg(\! -\!\frac{t^2 / (2 T_0^2)}{1 + \beta_2^2 z^2 / T_0^4} \big( 1 + i \beta_2 z / T_0^2 \big) \bigg)
\end{aligned}$$
To quantify the strength of dispersive effects,
we define the dispersion length $$L_D$$
as the distance over which the half-width at $$1/e$$ of maximum power
(initially $$T_0$$) increases by a factor of $$\sqrt{2}$$:
$$\begin{aligned}
T_0 \sqrt{1 + \beta_2^2 L_D^2 / T_0^4}
= T_0 \sqrt{2}
\qquad \implies \qquad
\boxed{
L_D
\equiv \frac{T_0^2}{|\beta_2|}
}
\end{aligned}$$
This phenomenon is illustrated below for our example of a Gaussian pulse
with parameter values $$T_0 = 1\:\mathrm{ps}$$, $$P_0 = 1\:\mathrm{kW}$$,
$$\beta_2 = -10 \:\mathrm{ps}^2/\mathrm{m}$$ and $$\gamma = 0$$:
{% include image.html file="simulation-full.png" width="100%"
alt="Dispersive broadening simulation results" %}
The **instantaneous frequency** $$\omega_\mathrm{GVD}(z, t)$$,
which describes the dominant angular frequency at a given point in the time domain,
is found to be as follows for the Gaussian pulse,
where $$\phi(z, t)$$ is the phase of $$A(z, t) = \sqrt{P(z, t)} \exp(i \phi(z, t))$$:
$$\begin{aligned}
\omega_{\mathrm{GVD}}(z,t)
= \pdv{}{t}\bigg( \frac{\beta_2 z t^2 / (2 T_0^4)}{1 + \beta_2^2 z^2 / T_0^4} \bigg)
= \frac{\beta_2 z / T_0^2}{1 + \beta_2^2 z^2 / T_0^4} \frac{t}{T_0^2}
\end{aligned}$$
This expression is linear in time, and depending on the sign of $$\beta_2$$,
frequencies on one side of the pulse arrive first,
and those on the other side arrive last.
The effect is stronger for smaller $$T_0$$:
this makes sense, since shorter pulses are spectrally wider.
The interaction between dispersion and [self-phase modulation](/know/concept/self-phase-modulation/)
leads to many interesting effects,
such as [modulational instability](/know/concept/modulational-instability/)
and [optical wave breaking](/know/concept/optical-wave-breaking/).
Of great importance is the sign of $$\beta_2$$:
in the **anomalous dispersion regime** ($$\beta_2 < 0$$),
lower frequencies travel more slowly than higher ones,
and vice versa in the **normal dispersion regime** ($$\beta_2 > 0$$).
## References
1. O. Bang,
*Numerical methods in photonics: lecture notes*, 2019,
unpublished.
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