Lossless equalization of frequency combs

Frequency combs obtained by sinusoidal phase modulation of narrowband cw lasers are widely used in the field of optical communications. However, the resulting spectral envelope of the comb is not flat. We propose a general and efficient approach to achieve flat frequency combs with tunable bandwidth. The idea is based on a two-step process. First, efficient generation of a train with a temporal flat-top-pulse profile is required. Second, we use large parabolic phase modulation in every train period to map the temporal intensity shape into the spectral domain. In this way the resulting spectral envelope is flat, and the size is tunable with the chirping rate. Two different schemes are proposed and verified through numerical simulations. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.