Groupvelocitydispersion

Related Terms: Group Delay Dispersion (GDD), Group Index and Velocity, Group Velocity Delay (GVD), Second Order Dispersion

The group delay dispersion is the change in the group delay depending on the frequency of the propagating light. Since a pulse will generally have a spread of wavelengths, differences in the group delay for the various wavelengths will cause the pulse to broaden in time. Typical units are [ps2] and is for a defined length of optical material.