Novel picosecond optical sources based on gain switched diode lasers and nonlinear pulse reshaping

This work presents a theoretical design and experimental optimization study on the improvements to pulsed diode laser Gain-Switched (GS) optical sources and an external compressor based on a Nonlinear Loop Mirror (NOLM). The designed and optimized NOLM will be adapted to the characteristics of GS optical sources by using a microstructured optical fiber and a semiconductor optical amplifier in a nonlinear Sagnac loop, avoiding the need to include in the compression and reshaping scheme pre-processing stages of the input optical pulses. This scheme reduces the system complexity and the assembly of an input stage being a commercial or Cost Of The Shelf (COTS) gain-switched diode laser and a compressor and reshaping stage giving rise to a compact, reliable low cost new picosecond optical pulse sources at high repetition rates, that can be used in many fields and applications.

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