Ultrashort optical pulses are integral to various fields. Thus, the characterization of these pulses is crucial in understanding the results of experiments and applications using them. A diagnostic for laser systems was created to determine the shapes of ultrashort optical pulses using the principle of spectral shearing interferometry (SSI). By strongly chirping an optical pulse using a pair of...

All optical method is considered as a promising technique for high symbol rate Nyquist signal generation, which has attracted a lot of research interests for high spectral-efficiency and high-capacity optical communication system. In this paper, we extend our previous work and report the fully experimental demonstration of polarization-division multiplexed (PDM) all-optical Nyquist signal gener...

An all-optical UWB pulses generation and modulation scheme using cross phase modulation (XPM) effect of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and DWDM-based multi-channel frequency discrimination is proposed and demonstrated, which has potential application in multiuser UWB-Over-Fiber communication systems. When a Gaussian pulse light and a wavelength-tunable CW probe light are together injecte...

Time-multiplexed optical line-by-line pulse shaping with specific application to rapid update radio-frequency (RF) waveform generation is modeled. The effects of fundamental pulse shaping parameters on generated RF waveforms are numerically analyzed. Experimental and theoretical results are compared and are in excellent agreement.

We propose a simple means for compressing optical pulses with second-harmonic generation. Aperiodic quasi-phase-matching gratings impart a frequency-dependent phase shift on the second-harmonic pulse relative to the fundamental pulse and can be engineered to correct for arbitrary phase distortions. The mechanism is discussed, and a detailed analysis of the compression of quadratic phase (linear...

Techniques for the precise synthesis and control of the temporal shape of optical pulses with durations in the picosecond and sub-picosecond regimes have become increasingly important for a wide range of applications in such diverse fields as ultrahigh-bit-rate optical communications (Parmigiani et al., 2006; Petropoulos et al., 2001; Oxenlowe et al., 2007; Otani et al., 2000), nonlinear optics...

We show that, in a coherent two-level optical amplifier with Kerr nonlinearity and linear loss, any weak seed pulse evolves into a fixed powerful linearly chirped pulse with quasi-parabolic shape. This process is associated with a transition from the incoherent into the coherent amplification regime, thus enabling in practice the generation of pulses with a spectrum wider than the linear gain b...

A new type of optical pulse shaper for arbitrary waveform generation is demonstrated, based on fiber Bragg grating and micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technologies. This is an on-chip device which is compact, robust, monolithic, and programmable and can be used for a variety of applications such as higher order dispersion compensation in fiber communication links and high-energy pulse am...

Various analogs of NMR and MRI are now technically possible in optics; specifically, high-resolution laser-pulse shaping and complex pulse sequence generation with well-defined phase shifts has been demonstrated. Here we summarize this technology and discuss the potential for these methods to enhance optical functional imaging, competing with (and surpassing?) what is possible by functional MRI.

We present a 9 GW peak power, three-cycle, 2.2 microm optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification source with 1.5% rms energy and 150 mrad carrier envelope phase fluctuations. These characteristics, in addition to excellent beam, wavefront, and pulse quality, make the source suitable for long-wavelength-driven high-harmonic generation. High stability is achieved by careful optimization of su...