Ultrafast processing

Ultrashort high-repetition rate sources

main collaborators : Dr. Julien Fatome, Dr. Bertrand Kibler, Dr. Ugo Andral, Anastasiia Sheveleva

main period : 2006 - on going

We have developed a long-term expertise regarding the generation of high-repetition pulses with high-extinction ratio and a low duty-cycle.

Using nonlinear effects in fibers with normal or anomalous dispersion, we have been able to efficiently reshape an initial sinusoidal intensity modulation into well-defined pulses with a shape very close to a perfect Gaussian pulse. Optical breathers were also explored and patented as an innovative solutions to high-quality pulses.

We later investigated the use of a temporal sinusoidal phase modulation on which we applied an optimized linear spectral shaping. The resulting high-quality waveforms we called Besselons can be further compressed by self-phase modulation to lead to subpicosecond durations pulses and with repetitions rate exceeding 100 GHz.

main related publications :
C. Finot, J. Fatome, S. Pitois, G. Millot, All-Fibered High-Quality Low Duty-Cycle 20-GHz and 40-GHz Picosecond Pulse Sources, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 19 (2007) 1711-1713.
I. El Mansouri, J. Fatome, C. Finot, M. Lintz, S. Pitois, All-Fibered High-Quality Stable 20- and 40-GHz Picosecond Pulse Generators for 160-Gb/s OTDM Applications, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 23 (2011) 1487-1489.
S. Pitois, C. Finot, J. Fatome, G. Millot, Generation of 20-Ghz picosecond pulse trains in the normal and anomalous dispersion regimes of optical fibers, Opt. Commun., 260 (2006) 301-306.
U. Andral, J. Fatome, B. Kibler, C. Finot, Triangular spectral phase tailoring for the generation of high-quality picosecond pulse trains, Opt. Lett., 44 (2019) 4913.
A. Sheveleva, C. Finot, Nonlinear Compression of Besselon Waves for High Repetition-Rate Subpicosecond Pulse Trains, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 32 (2020) 1493.
J. Fatome, B. Kibler, C. Finot, High-quality optical pulse train generator based on solitons on finite background, Opt. Lett., 38 (2013) 1663-1665.

Waveform generation

main collaborators : Dr. Sonia Boscolo, Dr. Julien Fatome, Dr. Bertrand Kibler

main period : 2011 - on going

Combining linear spectral shaping with possible nonlinear evolution in fiber, we have demonstrated that a very limited set of spectral lines was required to generate parabolic, triangular or flat-top profiles at repetition rates of several tens of GHz.

main related publications :
C. Finot, 40-GHz photonic waveform generator by linear shaping of four spectral sidebands, Opt. Lett., 40 (2015) 1422-1425.
J. Fatome, K. Hammani, B. Kibler, C. Finot, 80 GHz waveform generated by the optical Fourier synthesis of four spectral sidebands, Laser Phys. Lett., 13 (2016) 015102.
N. Verscheure, C. Finot, Pulse doubling and wavelength conversion through triangular nonlinear pulse reshaping, Electron. Lett., 47 (2011) 1194-1196.

All optical regeneration

main collaborators : Dr. Julien Fatome, Dr. Lionel Provost, Dr. Sonia Boscolo, Dr. Stéphane Pitois, Pr. Periklis Petropoulos, Pr. Thierry Chartier, Pr. Dave Richardson

main period : 2005-2017

In collaboration with Lionel Provost, we have deeply investigated theoretically and experimentally the properties of the all-optical regeneration scheme based on strong self-phase modulation followed by frequency-offset spectral bandpass filtering. We have pointed out several unknown features of this scheme known as the Mamyshev device. Our theoretical work with Stéphane Pitois has also led to the proposal of a new fiber architecture which efficiency has then been confirmed by other experimental groups as being a breakthrough technology leading to record performance.

Other regeneration architectures based on solitons or on the process of spectral narrowing have also been explored.

main related publications :
C. Finot, J. Fatome, S. Pitois, G. Millot, E. Pincemin, Active Mamyshev regenerator, Optical Review, 18 (2011) 257-263.
L. Provost, F. Parmigiani, C. Finot, K. Mukasa, P. Petropoulos, D.J. Richardson, Analysis of a two-channel 2R all-optical regenerator based on a counter-propagating configuration, Opt. Express, 16 (2008) 2264-2275.
L. Provost, C. Finot, K. Mukasa, P. Petropoulos, D.J. Richardson, Design scaling rules for 2R-Optical Self-Phase Modulation-based regenerators, Opt. Express, 15 (2007) 5100-5113.
S. Pitois, C. Finot, L. Provost, Asymptotic properties of incoherent waves propagating in an all-optical regenerators line, Opt. Lett., 32 (2007) 3263-3265.
J. Fatome, C. Finot, Scaling guidelines of a soliton-based power limiter for 2R-optical regeneration applications, J. Lightw. Technol., 28 (2010) 2552-2556.
S. Boscolo, J. Fatome, C. Finot, Impact of amplitude jitter and signal-to-noise ratio on the nonlinear spectral compression in optical fibres, Opt. Commun., 389 (2017) 197-202.
C. Finot, T.N. Nguyen, J. Fatome, T. Chartier, L. Bramerie, M. Gay, S. Pitois, J.C. Simon, Numerical study of an optical regenerator exploiting self-phase modulation and spectral offset filtering at 40 Gbit/s, Opt. Commun., 281 (2008) 2252-2264.

Optical sampling and testing

main collaborators : Dr. Julien Fatome, Dr. Javier Nuno

main period : 2010-2017

We have implemented several photonic methods able to magnify the level of fluctuations of a pulse train so as to reveal small levels of amplitude jitters. Those amplitude jitter magnifiers relied on nonlinear effects such as self-phase modulation or the soliton frequency shift.

Other nonlinear schemes were used to evaluate the optical signal to noise ratio of an optical pulse train or to sample a nanosecond waveforms. The space/time duality was also beneficial in this context.

main related publications :
C.H. Hage, B. Kibler, C. Finot, Fiber-based device for the detection of low intensity fluctuations of ultrashort pulses, Appl. Opt., 51 (2012).
C. Courvoisier, J. Fatome, C. Finot, Measurement of Residual Chromatic Dispersion or OSNR via Nonlinear Spectral Evolution, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 23 (2011) 537-539.
C. Finot, J. Fatome, All-optical fiber-based ultrafast amplitude jitter magnifier, Opt. Express, 18 (2010) 18697-18702.
J. Nuño, M. Gilles, M. Guasoni, C. Finot, J. Fatome, All-optical sampling and magnification based on XPM-induced focusing, Optics Express, 24 (2016) 24921-24929.
J. Nuno, C. Finot, J. Fatome, Linear Sampling and Magnification Technique Based on Phase Modulators and Dispersive Elements: the Temporal Lenticular Lens, Opt. Fiber Technol., 36 (2017) 125-129.
C. Finot, J. Fatome, Experimental demonstration of an ultrafast all-optical bit-error indicating scheme, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., 53 (2010) 392-395.