An optical FPGA: Reconfigurable simultaneous multi-output spectral pulse-shaping for linear optical processing

We demonstrate a pulse-shaping technique that allows for spectrally resolved splitting of an input signal to multiple output ports. This ability enables reconfigurable creation of splitters with complex wavelength-dependent splitting ratios, giving similar flexibility to a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) in electronics. Our technique can be used to create reprogrammable optical (interferometric) circuits, by emulating their multi-port spectral transfer functions instead of the traditional method of creating an interferometer by splitting and recombining the light with an added delay. We demonstrate the capabilities of this technique by creating a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, an all-optical discrete Fourier transform filter, two nested Mach-Zehnder interferometers and a complex splitter with a triangular-shaped response. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America