Dispersion oscillations in ultrafast phase-correction devices

Dispersion compensation is one of the most important tools for the generation of ultrashort optical pulses. Chirped mirrors have significantly increased the possibilities of compensation for arbitrarily shaped high-order dispersion. However, all design methods and manufacturing attempts reported so far have shown a spectral ripple on the phase characteristics of the mirror. We investigate the origin of this dispersion ripple and its consequences on pulse shaping. Recently, similar effects have also been reported in telecommunication applications of short pulses in devices such as fiber Bragg gratings and arrayed waveguide gratings. This calls for a systematic analysis of the phase ripple artifacts, which will be addressed both by numerical simulations and approximate analytical expressions. The results allow for an estimation of the severity of phase distortions in mode-locked lasers, external compression schemes, and telecommunication applications.