A duration-tunable, multiwavelength pulse source for OTDM and WDM communications systems

We describe a highly flexible ultrashort optical pulse source capable of generating duration-tunable pulses at single or multiple wavelengths. The technique we report is based on the filtering of the broad spectrum of femtosecond solitons which are generated using an electroabsorption modulator combined with nonlinear compression. The simplicity and robust nature of this source make it highly stable and we demonstrate the generation of pulses at a repetition rate of 10 GHz with durations in the femtosecond and picosecond regimes and the simultaneous generation of eight 10-GHz channels of picosecond pulses with a channel spacing of 3.5 nm.