Distortion in optical pulse equalization through phase modulation and dispersive transmission

By combining phase modulation and dispersive transmission we propose an adjustable optical device to compress a time-varying input signal for producing ultrashort light pulses of high optical power. The relationship between the required properties of the input signal and the device parameters to get well-conformed sharp pulses with large energy concentration was established. High-order aberrations effects of the electro-optical modulator acting as the time lens of the employed setup are also considered. We found a mathematical analogy between the output signal of the analyzed device and the signal which would be obtained by using an equivalent first-order dispersive line. Some numerical simulations are shown which illustrate the feasibility of the method. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.