Subpicosecond optical pulse compression via an integrated nonlinear chirper

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) capable of ultra-fast, signal processing are recognized as being fundamental for future applications involving ultra-short optical pulse propagation, including the ability to meet the exponentially growing global fiber-optic telecommunications bandwidth demand. Integrated all-optical signal processors would carry substantial benefits in terms of performance, cost, footprint, and energy efficiency. Here, we demonstrate an optical pulse compressor based on an integrated nonlinear chirper, capable of operating on a sub-picosecond (> 1Tb/s) time scale. It is CMOS compatible and based on a 45cm long, high index doped silica glass waveguide we achieve pulse compression at relatively low input peak powers, due to the high nonlinearity and low linear and nonlinear losses of the device. The flexibility of this platform in terms of nonlinearity and dispersion allows the implementation of several compression schemes. (C)2010 Optical Society of America