Group-velocity dispersion emulator using a time lens

We report a novel method to continuously track the temporal evolution of an arbitrary complex waveform as it propagates through a group-velocity dispersion medium by using a single-frequency-driven phase modulator. The proposed method exploits the fact that the frequency spectrum of a given (input)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2021-12, Vol.46 (23), p.5974-5977
Main Authors: Zhu, Xinyi, Romero Cortés, Luis, Azaña, José
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Emulators
Evolution
Frequency spectrum
Optical frequency
Phase modulation
Pulse compression
Wave propagation
Waveforms
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Summary:We report a novel method to continuously track the temporal evolution of an arbitrary complex waveform as it propagates through a group-velocity dispersion medium by using a single-frequency-driven phase modulator. The proposed method exploits the fact that the frequency spectrum of a given (input) waveform, following a suitable sinusoidal temporal phase modulation, exhibits the same shape as that of a dispersed version of the same temporal waveform after propagation through a prescribed amount of dispersion. In experiments, we track the dispersion-induced temporal evolution of different optical picosecond pulsed waveforms by tuning the frequency and/or amplitude of the phase modulation signal and observing the resulting shapes in the optical frequency domain. A good agreement is obtained between the measured spectra and predicted temporal shapes of the propagating waveform for different amounts of dispersion. Moreover, the method is successfully applied on a chirped optical pulse to find the optimal pulse compression conditions.
ISSN:0146-9592
1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.444211