Widely Tunable Repetition-Rate Control of Optical Pulse Trains Using a Fixed Dispersive Medium

Abstract

Over the past few years, approaches based on temporal Talbot effect have been widely investigated for repetition-rate control of optical pulse trains. However, the tunability of the repetition rate typically relies on changing the second-order dispersion of the dispersive medium, which inevitably limits the flexibility of the approach for practical applications. Despite the reported works on programmable repetition-rate multiplication or division of optical pulse trains, a general design theory and method that enables wide-range repetition-rate control without altering the dispersive medium are still lacking. In this work, we present a method for programmable repetition-rate control of optical pulse trains based on a fixed dispersive medium, allowing for simultaneous repetition-rate multiplication and division with integer and fractional factors. The effectiveness of our proposed method is investigated through numerical simulations and experimental demonstrations, showing its potential for versatile and tunable optical pulse train generation in advanced photonic systems.