Time Domain Parabolic Pulse Creation Of Ultrafast Chirped Pulses

The generation of optical pulses with parabolic time intensity profiles is experimentally demonstrated. A Mode Locked Laser (MLL) that generates near transform limited pulses with a gaussian optical spectrum are temporally stretched using a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating. The temporal intensity profile of the stretched pulses matches the optical spectrum of the laser due to frequency-to-time mapping. An amplitude modulator is driven by a carefully designed voltage signal to result in parabolic pulses. Experimental results of pulse shaping with a MLL input source are presented, and show good agreement with modeling results. Parabolic pulse generation using a CW laser source is also demonstrated and a deviation of less than 3% from an ideal parabola is observed. © 2010 SPIE