Distributed Bragg pulse shaper: Demonstration and model

The distributed Bragg pulse-shaper (DBPS) is a series of electrically switchable Bragg mirrors on a semiconductor waveguide. The DBPS encodes data packets using parallel electrical signals to set the states of the Bragg mirrors. A broad-band source pulse then probes the device to generate a high bandwidth serial wavepacket from the train of partially reflecting mirrors. This paper describes a DBPS constructed in AlGaAs. Using this device and a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser, we create a 4-bit packet with 0.37 Tb/s burst bit rate and we demonstrate for the first time that bits in the wavepacket can be switched by electrical modulation of individual Bragg segments. We also describe a model collaborating the observed data.