Photonic generation of picosecond pulse doublets from the nonlinear splitting of super-Gaussian pulses

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of temporal pulse doublets from the propagation of initial super-Gaussian waveforms in an optical fiber with anomalous dispersion. The nonlinear focusing dynamics leads to picosecond structures that are characterized both in amplitude and phase. Their close-to-Gaussian Fourier-transform limited shape is found in excellent agreement with numerical simulations. This single-stage reshaping scheme is energy efficient, can sustain GHz repetition rates and temporal compression factors around 10 are demonstrated