Femtosecond pulse shaping
Open-knowledge reference entry
In optics, femtosecond pulse shaping refers to manipulations with temporal profile of an ultrashort laser pulse. Pulse shaping can be used to shorten/elongate the duration of optical pulse, or to generate complex pulses.
Introduction
Generation of sequences of ultrashort optical pulses is key in realizing ultra high speed optical networks, Optical Code Division Multiple Access (OCDMA) systems, chemical and biological reaction triggering and monitoring etc. Based on the requirement, pulse shapers may be designed to stretch, compress or produce a train of pulses from a single input pulse. The ability to produce trains of pulses with femtosecond or picosecond separation implies transmission of optical information at very high speeds.
In ultrafast laser science pulse shapers are often used as a complement to pulse compressors in order to fine-tune high-order dispersion compensation and achieve transform-limited few-cycle optical pulses.
Techniques
A pulse shaper may be visualized as a modulator. The input pulse is multiplied with a modulating function to get a desired output pulse. The modulating function in pulse shapers may be in time domain or a frequency domain (obtained by Fourier transform of time profile of pulse). However, application of direct pulse shaping technique on a femtosecond time scale faces the same problem as direct femtosecond pulse measurement: electronics speed limitations.
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