Active pulse compression using an integrated electro-optic phase modulator

We describe a pulse compression technique that uses integrated electro-optic phase modulators to linearly chirp optical pulses for compression by a dispersive delay line. In contrast to passive chirp techniques such as self-phase modulation, this approach of active pulse compression does not depend on the optical power and thus shows promise for application to low-power solid-state lasers as an alternative to mode locking for realizing compact picosecond sources. We have demonstrated this technique by compressing the pulses from a mode-locked neodymium:yttrium aluminum garnet laser from 100 to 45 ps.