Remote Characterization and Dissemination of Disper sion Compensated Ultrashort Pulses Through Dynamic Fiber Optic Links

Abstract

Ultrashort optical pulse sources are often complex and resource-intensive, and thus, delivering pulses to multiple satellite locations over a fiber-optic network dynamically from a central location reduces overhead and increases the efficacy of the source usage. For robust delivery, accurate characterization of the pulse dispersion at the satellite locations without specialized equipment and its compensation is essential. This work demonstrates the delivery of dispersion-compensated pulses over standard optical fiber links and their characterization using a simple measurement module at satellite locations. The module uses a second-harmonic crystal and power detectors at the fundamental and second-harmonic wavelengths. A centrally located pulse shaper-based interferometer creates pulse pairs with varying time delays during the characterization phase. Together with the remote detectors, this provides the field and intensity autocorrelations, which describe the spectral and temporal domain of the pulse. We demonstrate our technique by transmitting dispersion compensated sub-400 fs pulses over two fiber optic links of 50 and 100 meters. The pulses are shaped adaptively before transmission to compensate for the dispersion-induced distortions. The pulse intensity and power spectrum are measured remotely and agree with those made at the source. This provides an easy distribution method for femtosecond lasers from central to satellite locations via standard optical fiber links on a time-share basis and their remote characterization.