Nonlinear power limits of compression by optical fibres of chirped pulses emitted by diode lasers

The compression by singlemode optical fibres of chirped pulses delivered by gain or/and Q-switched diode lasers is limited at high powers by the occurrence of selfphase modulation due to the Kerr effect. In the Letter, the intensity threshold above which the output pulses will be widened and even distorted is determined. The reported curves provide the user with a practical tool for the choice of the best fibre parameters in order to avoid these nonlinear effects.