We present analytical and experimental results to demonstrate the narrowing of pulses transmitted through optical fibers, with polarization mode dispersion compensated for to first order in frequency. The compensation technique splits the optical signal at the fiber output into polarization components that are aligned with the output principal states of polarization, and only one of the two components is subsequently detected. It is shown that it is possible with this compensation technique to have output pulses that are narrower than the input pulses. Pulse narrowing can also be found when the optical signal is split into orthogonal polarization components that are not principal states of polarization.
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