CHIRPED-PULSE PROGRAMMING OF OPTICAL COHERENT TRANSIENT TRUE-TIME DELAYS

Programming an optical coherent transient true-time delay device with two frequency-chirped pulses provides a novel means of performing broa dband (>> GHz) true-time delay with a wide dynamic range of delays wit h fine temporal resolution. We have demonstrated true-time delays exce eding 2 mu s with sub-100-ps resolution. Chirped-pulse programming has the advantages over the previously proposed brief pulse programming [ Opt. Lett. 21, 1102 (1996)] of reduced instantaneous power requirement s and the ability to control the true-time delay by frequency shifting the programming pulses. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.