Femtosecond pulse shaping for synthesis, processing, and time-to-space conversion of ultrafast optical waveforms

Shaping, signal processing, and time-space conversion of femtosecond pulses can be achieved by linear and nonlinear manipulation of the spatially dispersed optical frequency spectrum within a grating and lens pulse shaper. In this paper, we first review our work on femtosecond pulse shaping and processing, with an emphasis on applications to high-speed communications and information processing. We then present a new concept for generalized time-space processing based on cascaded time-to-space and space-to-time conversions in conjunction with smart pixel optoelectronic arrays and provide a detailed discussion of our recent studies of time-to-space conversion based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) within a femtosecond pulse shaper.