An optical pulse modulator based on an all‐fiber mirror

Abstract

In this article we present an all-fiber Sagnac interferometer modulated in a pulsed regime. It is demonstrated that a phase step applied in one extreme of the fiber loop, combined with the right polarization changes in the loop, can generate different types of pulses at the output of the interferometer. The pulse widths are determined by the transit time of the light through the fiber loop. Our present experimental arrangement can generate positive and negative 200-ns optical pulses. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.