Joint transform correlator for optical temporal signals

Correlation is considered to be a fundamental operation in the field of sig nal processing. The fact that this operation can be implemented optically i n a relatively simple manner is an important advantage of utilizing optical systems for signal processing. The VanderLugt 4-f system and the joint tra nsform correlator (JTC) are the two most popular configurations for perform ing a spatial correlation operation optically. So far the STC architecture has been used for performing correlation between two images, which are illu minated by a quasi-monochromatic light source. We propose a generalization of the JTC that performs a correlation between two temporal optical signals . (C) 2000 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 070.2580, 070.0070, 100.4 550, 070.4550.