Picosecond pulse generation with high extinction ratio employing electroabsorption modulator, fibre compressor, and self-phase-modulation-based pulse reshaper

A wavelength-tunable 3.5 ps pulse generator, which employs an electroabsorption modulator (EAM), a fibre pulse compressor, and a self-phase-modulation (SPM)-based pulse reshaper, is developed. An EAM directly generates 21 ps pulses at a repetition rate of 10 GHz, which are compressed to 6 ps by a fibre pulse compressor. An SPM-based pulse reshaper then eliminates the large pedestal of the compressed pulses. Thus, 3.5 ps pulses with extinction ratio larger than 27 dB and timing jitter as small as 150 fs are obtained.