Abstract

To realize the future opto-electronic integrated circuits the functions that are available by discrete devices should also be present in an integrated forms. One of these functions is optical correlation which is used in time division multiplexing system and other schemes where optical pulses are used. Here we present a new class of integrable optical correlator and experimentally study its temporal resolution and power capability. The correlator (a special GaAs/AlGaAs waveguide) is shown to be broadband capable of correlating pulse trains with average power in the correlator in sub mW range with wavelengths ranging from 1.06μm to 1.7μm. The correlator device was also used to generate sum frequency signal from mixing l0mW cw beam of 1.06μm Nd:YAG laser with 7mW cw beam of 1.3μm semiconductor laser diode. The latest result shows the potential of direct measurement of optical pulses from semiconductor laser diodes at different wavelengths with a single integrable compact correlator without any mechanical translation. The power levels involved are 200μW (1.06μm) to 3 mW (1.7μm) average power in the correlator device. The longest pulses measured are 12psec centered at 1.43μm and the shortest pulses are 400fsec centered at 1.7μm with an indication of even shorter correlation trace of 150fsec. For the 150fsec pulses the resolution was limited by the 10X objective lens that was used to image the correlation signal on to the detector.

© 1989 Optical Society of America