Fast-Recovery of the Amplitude and Phase of Short Optical Pulses Using a Frequency-Swept Source Based Heterodyne Measurement

We propose a very fast heterodyne technique to recover the amplitude and phase of short optical pulses generated, e.g., by a mode-locked laser. A linearly swept frequency source is used to scan the entire optical spectrum of the mode-locked laser in a single continuous sweep. The beat signal is recorded on a fast oscilloscope and then digitally processed allowing the simultaneous recovery of the amplitude and the phase. This measurement is fast (less than 2 μs) and requires no prior spectral information about the signal under test.