Optical pulse generation by electrooptic-modulation method and its application to integrated ultrashort pulse generators

Abstract

We have developed ultrashort pulse generation by the electrooptic modulation method, where continuous-wave laser light of any wavelength can be converted to trains of ultrashort optical pulses with a variable and high repetition frequency by means of an electrooptic phase modulator for the generation of deeply chirped light, and an optical group-delay-dispersion circuit or an optical synthesizer for the compression of the chirped light. Adopting the technologies of domain inversion and guided-wave optics to this electrooptic modulation method, it will be possible to realize integrated ultrashort optical pulse generators.