%0 Journal Article
%T Nonlinear Pulse Shaping in Fibres for Pulse Generation and Optical Processing
%A Sonia Boscolo
%A Christophe Finot
%J International Journal of Optics
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/159057
%X The development of new all-optical technologies for data processing and signal manipulation is a field of growing importance with a strong potential for numerous applications in diverse areas of modern science. Nonlinear phenomena occurring in optical fibres have many attractive features and great, but not yet fully explored, potential in signal processing. Here, we review recent progress on the use of fibre nonlinearities for the generation and shaping of optical pulses and on the applications of advanced pulse shapes in all-optical signal processing. Amongst other topics, we will discuss ultrahigh repetition rate pulse sources, the generation of parabolic shaped pulses in active and passive fibres, the generation of pulses with triangular temporal profiles, and coherent supercontinuum sources. The signal processing applications will span optical regeneration, linear distortion compensation, optical decision at the receiver in optical communication systems, spectral and temporal signal doubling, and frequency conversion. 1. Introduction The use of photonic technologies for data processing in the all-optical domain has a strong potential for a variety of interesting applications in such diverse areas as optical telecommunications, metrology, optical sensing, microwave engineering, advanced microscopy image processing, optical computing, and many others. Advantages of processing the information in the all-optical domain include the large available bandwidth and the (potential) parallelism intrinsic to the optical approach, which translate into high-processing speeds. However, today electronic techniques of signal manipulation are advanced compared to all-optical processing devices, which are still at the research stage rather than under commercial development. A key feature of electronics, enabling many different applications, is the capability of generating electrical waveforms with arbitrary temporal profiles by use of simple integrated circuits. This capability is so far unmatched in the optical frequency range, where bulky and complex devices are required to shape the light fields. Hence, considerable knowledge still has to be accumulated and new methodologies need to be explored before a true breakthrough can be achieved in this field, allowing the range of functions and operations currently accomplished electronically, to be performed in the optical domain. Furthermore, by using optical rather than electronic processing additional functionality may be possible. In order to realize such all-optical processing, nonlinear photonics is seen as a key
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijo/2012/159057/