Modulation control and spectral shaping of optical fiber supercontinuum generation in the picosecond regime

Numerical simulations are used to study how fiber supercontinuum generation seeded by picosecond pulses can be actively controlled through the use of input pulse modulation. By carrying out multiple simulations in the presence of noise, we show how tailored supercontinuum Spectra with increased bandwidth and improved stability can be generated using an input envelope modulation of appropriate frequency and depth. The results are discussed in terms of the non-linear propagation dynamics and pump depletion.Comment: Aspects of this work were presented in Paper ThJ2 at OECC/ACOFT 2008, Sydney Australia 7-10 July (2008). Journal paper submitted for publication 30 July 200

Training Teachers to Select Educational Computer Software: results of a formative evaluation of an Open University pack

This paper considers the problem of training teachers to select suitable educational programs to use in their classroom. We argue that selecting good programs is difficult and that training teachers to do this has been largely neglected, both by the available literature and by in-service training courses. We describe an Opeyn University course (Open University Press 1984) which addresses this issue, and report on a formative evaluation of an activity within the course in which teachers examined three commercially available educational software packages. We conclude by emphasising the importance of a sound framework in which teachers can develop selection skills so that they can go beyond the supervicial technical features of the program to consider whether the underlying pedagogy is sound and suitable for their needs

Quasi-lossless optical links for broad-band transmission and data processing

We present the first experimental implementation of a recently designed quasi-lossless fiber span with strongly reduced signal power excursion. The resulting fiber waveguide medium can be advantageously used both in lightwave communications and in all-optical nonlinear data processing