Wideband all-order polarization mode dispersion compensation via pulse shaping

We demonstrate the application of ultrafast pulse-shaping techniques for experimental wideband all-order polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensation, for the first time to our knowledge. PMD is treated as arbitrary variations of state of polarization and phase versus wavelength, in an all-order sense. Consequently, two pulse shapers are implemented in a serial manner to compensate for the polarization and the phase spectra independently. We report compensation of subpicosecond pulses (14 nm bandwidth around 1550 nm) that are anomalously spread to more than 2 ps as a result of PMD. This PMD compensation scheme can potentially be a powerful and cost-effective solution for fiber optic telecommunication networks.