Intermediate asymptotic evolution and photonic bandgap fiber compression of optical similaritons around 1550 nm.

We report the complete characterization of the self-similar scaling of parabolic pulse similaritons in an optical fiber amplifier. High dynamic range frequency resolved optical gating allows the direct observation of the evolution of a hyperbolic secant-like input pulse to an asymptotic amplifier similariton, and reveals the presence of intermediate asymptotic wings about the parabolic pulse core. These results are used to optimize additional self-similar propagation in highly-nonlinear fiber and subsequent compression in hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber.