Abstract
We experimentally demonstrate a fiber-optic programmable optical pulse
shaper based on time-domain binary phase-only linear filtering, which is
capable of switching picosecond pulse shapes at unprecedented sub-GHz rates
by simply updating the binary signal driving an electro-optic
phase-modulator (EO-PM). The required binary phase-filtering functions are
computed using a genetic algorithm (GA). One limitation of the binary
phase-filtering approach is the inherent symmetry of the output temporal
shapes. To generate fully arbitrary time-domain intensity profiles
(including asymmetric temporal waveforms) we must employ a multi-level
phase-filtering function. However, the size of the solution-space and
complexity of the computation multiplies to manifolds as the number of
levels in the phase-filtering function increases. Here we numerically
demonstrate a simple strategy, by combining the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm
(GSA) and GA, for the fast computation of multi-level phase-filtering
functions. The performance of this approach is numerically proven by
generating different asymmetric pulse shapes of practical interest, assuming
experimentally feasible design parameters.
© 2010 IEEE
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