Group delay and dispersion tailoring in nonadiabatic tapered fibers

•Dispersion and group delay of a nonadiabatic tapered fiber are dynamically tuned.•Coarse tuning is also obtained by varying its surrounding medium.•Dispersion is tailored from 17 ps/nm·km at 1550 nm to more than 700 ps/nm·km.•This technique can be applied to nonlinearities or soliton propagation.

The dispersion profile of a nonadiabatic tapered singlemode fiber is characterized and dynamically tuned. Its group delay and dispersion parameters are measured and compared to those of a standard singlemode fiber. The dispersion profile can be tuned by introducing a phase shift through mechanical stretching. Coarse tuning is also obtained by varying the surrounding medium of the tapered fiber. Dispersion values up to 700 ps/nm·km in nonadiabatic tapered fibers are obtained for the first time. Dynamic tuning exposed here can be very useful in applications such as nonlinearities or soliton generation.