Abstract
Various methods of ultrashort optical pulse waveform measurement are reviewed. They are classified into two categories; (1) real-time measurement methods including a PIN-PD followed by a sampling oscilloscope and a streak camera, and (2) correlation measurement methods, i. e., an SHG (Second Harmonic Generation) autocorrelation such as IRIS (iterative pulseform reconstruction from interferometric signals) and an SFG (Sum Frequency Generation) crosscorrelation. Features and future prospectives of these methods are compared with each other from the point of view of pulse waveform evaluation required for the optical fiber communications. Also, for novel applications to optical fiber communications, some measurement methods utilizing ultrashort optical pulses are described, including an optical-optical sampling method used for evaluation of modulated optical signals and E-0 modulators and a BOTDA (Brillouin optical-fiber time domain analysis) method used for he distributed strain measurement of optical fibers.
