Nonlinear and dispersive optical pulse propagation

n this dissertation, there are basically four novel contributions to the field of picosecond pulse propagation and measurement. The first contribution is the temporal ABCD matrix which is an analog of the traditional ABCD ray matrices used in Gaussian beam propagation. The temporal ABCD matrix allows for the easy calculation of the effects of linear chirp or group velocity dispersion in the time domain. As with Gaussian beams in space, there also exists a complete Hermite-Gaussian basis in time whose propagation can be tracked with the temporal ABCD matrices. The second contribution is the timing synchronization between a colliding pulse mode-locked dye laser and a gain-switched Fabry-Perot type AlGaAs laser diode that has achieved less than 40 femtoseconds of relative timing jitter by using a pulsed optical phase lock loop (POPLL). The relative timing jitter was measured using the error voltage of the feedback loop. This method of measurement is accurate since the frequencies of all the timing fluctuations fall within the loop bandwidth. The novel element is a broad band optical cross-correlator that can resolve femtosecond time delay errors between two pulse trains. The third contribution is a novel dispersive technique of determining the nonlinear frequency sweep of a picosecond pulse with relatively good accuracy. All the measurements are made in the time domain and hence there is no time-bandwidth limitation to the accuracy. The fourth contribution is the first demonstration of cross-phase modulation in a semiconductor laser amplifier where a variable chirp was observed. A simple expression for the chirp imparted on a weak signal pulse by the action of a strong pump pulse is derived. A maximum frequency excursion of 16 GHz due to the cross-phase modulation was measured. A value of 5 was found for...