752 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 34, No.

6 / March 15, 2009

Flat-top pulse generation based on a fiber Bragg

grating in transmission
Miguel A. Preciado* and Miguel A. Muriel
ETSI Telecomunicacion, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), 28040 Madrid, Spain
*Corresponding author: ma.preciado@upm.es
Received October 27, 2008; revised January 23, 2009; accepted January 30, 2009;
posted February 8, 2009 (Doc. ID 103231); published March 6, 2009
We propose and analyze a flat-top pulse generator based on a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in transmission. As
is shown in the examples, a uniform period FBG properly designed can exhibit a spectral response in trans-
mission close to sinc function (in amplitude and phase) in a certain bandwidth, because of the logarithm
Hilbert transform relations, which can be used to reshape a Gaussian-like input pulse into a flat-top pulse.
© 2009 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 060.3735, 200.4740, 230.1150, 320.5540, 320.7080.

The generation of well-defined pulse forms and pulse
sequences is required for a wide range of applica-
tions. Particularly, flat-top pulses are highly desired
for various important applications: optical gating,
nonlinear optical switching, and a wide range of ul-
trafast pump–probe experiments [1–3]. Fiber grat-
ings offer their inherent advantages (all-fiber ap-
proach, low insertion loss, and the potential for low
cost), and approaches based on fiber Bragg grating
(FBG) in reflection [1,2], and long period Bragg grat-
ings (LPBGs) in transmission [3] have been proposed
for flat-top pulse generation. The main drawback of
FBGs in reflection is that it requires an optical circu-
lator, or similar device, to separate the incident input
signal from the reflected output signal. Regarding
LPBGs, they present two codirectional modes in the
output.
In this Letter, we propose a flat-top pulse generator
based on an FBG operating in transmission. Several
applications-based FBGs in transmission approaches
have been previously proposed, such as the disper-
sion compensator [4–6], optical integrator [7,8], and
optical differentiator [9]. It is worth noting that
FBGs in transmission are not suitable for many ap-
plications because of the amplitude–phase relations
of their spectral response [6]. However, using them in
transmission offers interesting properties. Besides
not requiring the use of a coupler or circulator, the
system is easily scalable, the energy efficiency is in-
creased, the cost and complexity of the system are re-
duced, and FBGs in transmission have less sensitiv-
ity of the phase response than in reflection to grating
fabrication errors [4,6]. Moreover, the output signal
includes not only the processed signal within the
FBG resonant band but also the rest of the input sig-
nal (which is transmitted without any distortion),
which may be interesting in WDM systems. Figure 1
shows a schematic of the proposed system, where the
capabilities of this approach in WDM processing are
shown.
In the remainder of this Letter, we explain the the-
oretical basis of this method and design and simulate
two FBGs and apply them in transmission, in single
and concatenated configuration, to several input
waveforms. Finally, we summarize and conclude our
work.
Let us suppose fin共t兲 and fout共t兲 as the complex en-
velopes of the input and output of the system, respec-
tively, with t as the time variable. We can obtain a
flat-top pulse fout共t兲 from a narrow-enough Gaussian-
like pulse fin共t兲 if they are related by fout共t兲 ⬀ fin共t兲
丢 rect共t / T兲, where rect共t兲 is the rectangular function,
T is the rectangle full width, 丢 denotes the convolu-
tion operator, and ⬀ denotes proportionality. The cor-
responding spectral functions Fin共␻兲 and Fout共␻兲 are
related by Fout共␻兲 ⬀ sinc共␻T / 2兲Fin共␻兲, where sinc共␻兲 is
the sinc function; ␻ is the base-band angular pulsa-
tion, i.e., ␻ = ␻opt − ␻0, ␻opt is the optical angular pul-
sation; ␻0 is the central angular pulsation of the sig-
nals; and j = 共−1兲1/2 is the imaginary unit. Thus, the
spectral response (SR) of the FBG in transmission
should meet HT共␻兲 ⯝ HT,ideal共␻兲 = Fout共␻兲 / Fin共␻兲
⬀ sinc共␻T / 2兲, where HT共␻兲 can never exactly reach
HT,ideal共␻兲, since an FBG has no zeros in transmis-
sion. It is well known that the SR magnitude and
phase of a FBG in transmission are related by means
of the logarithmic Hilbert transform (LHT), since its
impulse response is a minimum phase function [6].
Thus, we cannot simultaneously impose arbitrary
兩HT共␻兲兩 and ⬔HT共␻兲, in general. Fortunately, neglect-
ing linear phase terms, we can assume that
兩sinc共␻T / 2兲兩 and ⬔共sinc共␻T / 2兲兲 are LHT pairs, since
the rectangular function can be practically consid-
ered a minimum phase function [10]. Indeed, if we
Fig. 1. (Color online) Schematic of the system. An FBG
working in transmission shapes a flat-top pulse in the cor-
responding WDM channel. The output signal also includes
the signal in other WDM channels.

0146-9592/09/060752-3/$15.00 © 2009 Optical Society of America


have an FBG with 兩HT共␻兲兩 ⯝ 兩HT,ideal共␻兲兩 ⬀ 兩sinc共␻T / 2兲兩,
we automatically obtain ⬔HT共␻兲 ⯝ ⬔ HT,ideal共␻兲
= ⬔ 共sinc共␻T / 2兲兲, where we neglect constant and lin-
ear phase terms.
Since the SRs in reflection and transmission are re-
lated by 兩HR共␻兲兩 = 冑1 − 兩HT共␻兲兩2, the objective SR of the
FBG in reflection must locally satisfy 兩HR共␻兲兩
⬇ 冑1 − 兩C sinc共␻T / 2兲兩2, where C · 1 is a real constant.
Several approximations have to be done to obtain
兩HR共␻兲兩 with a feasible FBG. First, we have to apply a
window function, since a FBG has a finite bandwidth.
Moreover, we have to take into account that a reflec-
tivity of 100% is impossible, but we can obtain a re-
flectivity close to it. These approximations lead to
兩HR共␻兲兩 = W共␻兲冑Rmax共1 − 兩C · sinc共␻T/2兲兩2兲, 共1兲
where Rmax ⬍ 1 is the maximum reflectivity of the
FBG, and W共␻兲 is a window function. Finally, in the
grating design, we have to apply an inverse scatter-
ing algorithm [11,12] to obtain the grating profile. It
is worth noting the independence of this design on
⬔HR共␻兲, which is a degree of freedom and can be ar-
bitrarily chosen. However, we want to remark that
we have obtained the best results of the inverse scat-
tering algorithm by choosing ⬔HR共␻兲 as the maxi-
mum phase corresponding to 兩HR共␻兲兩.
As an example, we design a uniform-period FBG in
transmission on the ideas introduced above, where
we assume a central frequency 共␻0 / 2␲兲 = 193 THz,
and we will refer to this grating as FBG1. The desired
SR in reflection, 兩HR共␻兲兩, is defined by Eq. (1), with
C = 1, Rmax = 0.9999, T = 50 ps, and the window func-
tion W共␻兲 used is a raised-cosine function with a roll-
off factor of 1 / 3 and a total width of 400 GHz. To fully
characterize the desired response in reflection, we as-
sign ⬔HR共␻兲 as the maximum phase corresponding
to 兩HR共␻兲兩 (another phase could be arbitrarily as-
signed). Using an inverse-scattering algorithm we ob-
tain the corresponding coupling coefficient ␬共z兲,
which is represented in Fig. 2. It is worth noting that
␬共z兲 is complex in general but can be assumed real for
uniform-period FBGs. This is legitimate provided we
take a proper choice of the origin z = 0 [13]. The re-
quired grating profile has a length of L = 10 cm, an
average refraction index nav = 1.452, a grating period
Fig. 2. (Color online) Grating profile obtained by inverse
scattering in a positive and negative representation, where
each zero crossing of ␬共z兲 implies a spatial ␲-phase shift in
the grating.
March 15, 2009 / Vol. 34, No. 6 / OPTICS LETTERS 753
of ⌳0 = 534.888 nm, and a maximum absolute cou-
pling factor max共兩␬共z兲兩兲 = 2858.87 m−1. Each zero
crossing of ␬共z兲 in Fig. 2 implies a spatial ␲-phase
shift in the grating, which implies a significant num-
ber (about 50) of ␲-phase shifts, but it is within cur-
rent technology, since FBGs have become extremely
sophisticated [14].
Figure 3(a) shows the magnitude and phase of the
FBG SR in transmission, obtained from numerical
simulation. It can be observed that the SR phase
within the operative band, the width of which can be
approximately estimated as 120 GHz, consists of a
linear phase term (pure delay), plus the ␲-phase
shifts corresponding to sinc function.
To highlight the easy scalability of this approach
and the potential for multiband WDM processing, we
consider a system composed by the concatenation of
FBG1 and FBG2, a grating equivalent to FBG1 but
with a different grating period and central frequency
(⌳0 = 535.582 nm and ␻0 = 192.75 THz, respectively).
The system SR in transmission, shown in Fig. 3(b),
was obtained by using the transfer matrix method
[13] (it is not exact to calculate it by directly multi-
plying the FBG SRs in transmission, since there is a
little overlapping band around 192.875 THz). Figure
4 shows the numerically obtained output temporal
waveforms for different input temporal waveforms.
In Fig. 4(a), we consider FBG1 with the input wave-
forms of a transform-limited Gaussian optical pulse
of 7 ps and spectral width of 126.08 GHz (both
FWHM width) with a central frequency of 193 THz.
As can be observed, the output pulse exhibits the de-
sired flat-top shape. In Figs. 4(b) and 4(c) we consider
a signal composed of four transform-limited Gauss-
ian optical pulse pulses at different central frequen-
cies (192.5, 192.75, 193, and 193.25 THz), each with a
temporal width of 7 ps (FWHM). In Fig. 4(b) we ap-
ply the signal to FBG1. Note that FBG1 processes
only the pulse within its resonant band. In Fig. 4(c),
we apply the signal to the concatenation of FBG1 and
FBG2, and it can be observed that the resulting sys-
tem processes only the pulses within the resonant
band of the FBGs. In both cases, the shapes of the
processed pulses are practically the same as shown in
Fig. 4(a), and the output also includes the rest of the
unprocessed pulses, which remain undistorted.
Fig. 3. (Color online) Spectral response in transmission of
(a) FBG1; (b) the system composed of FBG1 concatenated
with FBG2.
754 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 34, No. 6 / March 15, 2009
Fig. 4. (Color online) Temporal waveforms of the input sig-
nal (dashed curve), and the output signal (solid curve) in
the examples: (a) FBG1 applied over a 7 ps Gaussian pulse
at 193 THz; (b) FBG1, applied over a signal composed of
four 7 ps Gaussian pulses at several frequencies, where
only the pulse in the FBG1 resonant band is processed; (c)
FBG1 and FBG2 concatenated, applied over the same pre-
vious signal, where only the pulses in the FBG1 and FBG2
resonant bands are processed. Note that the output signal
also includes the unprocessed pulses outside the FBG
resonant bands, which are hardly distinguishable from the
input signal pulses in (b) and (c).
It is worth noting that the FBG spectral response
at the central frequency is the maximum for passive
devices, 兩HT共␻ = 0兲兩 = 1, which implies optimum energy
efficiency, which is unreachable for reflective FBGs,
since a 100% of reflectivity is not possible. We also
want to remark that the maximum reflectivity and
spectral width of the FBG are related to the flat-top
pulse quality in terms of edge sharpness and top flat-
ness, and to the grating feasibility in terms of length,
coupling strength, and profile complexity. It is sug-
gested to use a trial and error design method with
FBGs synthesis and simulation software to obtain a
trade-off solution between grating feasibility and
pulse quality, depending on the concrete limitations
of the technology used and the application require-
ments.
In conclusion, in this Letter we have presented a
flat-top pulse generator approach based on an FBG in
transmission. As it has been shown, we can obtain an
FBG SR in transmission close to the sinc function in
a certain bandwith in amplitude and phase. Since the
amplitude and phase of the FBG SR in transmission
are LHT pairs [6] and amplitude and phase of the
sinc function can also be considered LHT pairs [10],
when the SR amplitude is close to the sinc function
amplitude the SR phase also becomes close to the
sinc function phase. We want to emphasize the high
energetic efficiency, simplicity, scalability, and suit-
ability for WDM applications, obtaining a multiband
processing by simply concatenating several FBGs in
transmission at different resonant bands, without
any additional element except fiber optics.
This work was supported by the Spanish Ministe-
rio de Educacion y Ciencia under Project “Plan
Nacional de I⫹D⫹I TEC2007-68065-C03-02.”
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