This chapter is devoted to the study of dispersive effects that affect short pulses inside a graded-index fiber. An equation governing the evolution of optical pulses inside a GRIN medium is found in Section 4.1. The dispersion parameters appearing in this equation change, depending on which mode is being considered. Section 4.2 focuses on the distortion of optical pulses resulting from differential group delay and group velocity dispersion. Section 4.3 deals with the effects of linear coupling among the modes, occurring because of random variations in the core’s shape and size along a fiber’s length. A non-modal approach is developed in Section 4.4 for the propagation of short optical pulses inside a GRIN medium. The focus of Section 4.5 is on the applications where optical pulses are sent through a GRIN rod or fiber

Propagation of electromagnetic waves inside a GRIN medium is studied in this chapter. Section 2.1 starts with Maxwell’s equations and uses them to derive a wave equation in the frequency domain. A mode based technique is used in Section 2.2 for solving the wave equation for a GRIN device fabricated with a parabolic index profile. The properties of both the Hermite’Gauss and the Laguerre-Gauss modes are discussed. Section 2.3 is devoted to other power-law index profiles and employs the Wentzel-Kramers Brillouin method to discuss the properties of modes supported by them. We discuss in Section 2.4 the relative efficiency with which different modes are excited by an optical beam incident on a GRIN medium. The intermodal dispersive effects that become important for pulsed beams are also covered. Section 2.5 describes several non-modal techniques that can be used for studying wave propagation in GRIN media.