title: 10 GHz, 2.4 ps pulse generation using a single-stage dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator.
abstract: This Letter reports on picosecond pulse generation at a repetition of 10 GHz by using a single-stage electro-optic LiNbO(3) Mach-Zehnder modulator, stressing the simplicity of its setup. It is analytically and experimentally proved that dual-arm modulation with in-phase sinusoidal signals having slightly different amplitudes generated a highly coherent optical comb with a great spectral flatness and a parabolic phase relationship in its spectrum. The generated comb was Fourier synthesized and shaped into an ultrashort pulse train with an optical bandpass filter and a dispersive fiber. The pulse source was highly stable, exhibiting an ultralow timing jitter of less than 130 fs.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 4-2-1 Nukui-kitamachi, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan. tsaka@nict.go.jp
authors.forename: Takahide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawanishi
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya