Optical systems and methods based upon temporal stretching, modulation and recompression of ultrashort pulses
First Claim
1. A communication system comprising an ultra-short optical pulse source, pulse stretching means responsive to an ultra-short optical pulse from said source for producing a chirped temporally stretched pulse, modulator means for serially modulating the chirped temporally stretched optical pulse in accordance with predetermined information, and pulse compression means for temporally recompressing the modulated stretched pulse so as to result in a shaped ultra-short optical pulse containing retrievable information in accordance with said modulation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A communications systems is characterized by a pulse-shaping technique for producing shaped, stabilized, ultra-short (picosecond to femtosecond) pulses containing encoded information. Pulse shaping is accomplished by temporally stretching and chirping an ultra-short pulse from a pulse generator, modulating the pulse in real time and temporally compressing the pulse in a manner so as to cancel the original chirp.
158 Citations
23 Claims
- 1. A communication system comprising an ultra-short optical pulse source, pulse stretching means responsive to an ultra-short optical pulse from said source for producing a chirped temporally stretched pulse, modulator means for serially modulating the chirped temporally stretched optical pulse in accordance with predetermined information, and pulse compression means for temporally recompressing the modulated stretched pulse so as to result in a shaped ultra-short optical pulse containing retrievable information in accordance with said modulation.
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12. A method for producing shaped pulses from an ultra-short optical pulse comprising the steps of:
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(1) temporally stretching said ultra-short optical pulse to produce a chirped stretched optical pulse; (2) temporally serially modulating said chirped stretched optical pulse in accordance with predetermined information; and (3) temporally recompressing said modulated optical pulse to reform said ultra-short optical pulse, said reformed optical pulse having a desired shape in accordance with the Fourier transform of the temporal modulation. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A synchronous code division multiple access communication system comprising a source of ultra-short optical pulses, a plurality of transmitters, a plurality of receivers and coupling means for coupling said transmitters with said receivers,
CHARACTERIZED IN THAT (a) said transmitters comprise temporal pulse stretching means which stretches said ultra-short optical pulses and chirps said pulses, and high-speed phase modulator means for serially encoding said chirped pulses in accordance with predetermined information; - and (b) said receivers comprise decoder means including a high-speed phase modulator which is equal and opposite to a particular transmitter modulator code, temporal pulse compression means for reforming said ultra-short optical pulse, and a threshold detector for discriminating between pulses wherein the phase shift impressed upon the pulse at the transmitter is negated in the decoder of the receiver from those that are merely modified at the receiver.
- View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A method for communicating information between one or more transmitters and one or more receivers comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing ultra-short optical pulses in the picosecond to femtosecond range; temporally stretching and chirping said pulses; serially encoding a modulated signal onto said chirped pulses in accordance with predetermined information;
said encoded signal being the conjugate of a receiver code;coupling said encoded signal to said receivers; decoding said signal in said receivers; and (f) discriminating between decoded pulses which are the conjugates of the encoded signal from those which are not such that only the decoded conjugate signal is passed to a detector for further processing optical pulses from such a transmitter. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A system for communicating information between one or more transmitters and one or more receivers comprising a source of ultra-short optical pulses, pulse stretching means for stretching and chirping the ultra-short optical pulse, high-speed serial modulator means for modulating the stretched chirped pulse in accordance with predetermined information, and pulse compression means for recompressing the modulated chirped pulse, said pulse compression means creating a chirp opposite in sign and equal in magnitude to the chirp produced upon pulse stretching so as to result in a shaped ultra-short optical pulse containing information which is retrievable by said receiver.
Specification