PULSE SHAPING OF INCOHERENT-LIGHT BY USE OF A LIQUID-CRYSTAL MODULATOR ARRAY

We demonstrate the use of a femtosecond pulse-shaping apparatus for el ectronically programmable phase filtering of amplified spontaneous emi ssion from an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. Pulse shaping applied to a broadband incoherent light (noise) input results in reshaped noise, w ith a specially tailored electric field correlation function. Our expe riments clearly reveal that phase filtering can strongly affect the co herence properties of broadband, phase-incoherent light. (C) 1996 Opti cal Society of America