Width-tunable optical pulse generator based on the polarization-sensitive feature of LiNbO3 crystal in Mach–Zehnder modulator

A width-tunable optical pulses generation scheme by using a single Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) based on polarization-sensitive feature of LiNbO3 crystal is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed system, a continuous-wave light is sent into MZM via a polarization controller (PC), and interference in a polarization beam splitter after passing through another PC. Experimental results show that the full-width at half-maximum of pulses (10 GHz) can be tuned continuously from 20.39 to 53 ps by adjusting the DC bias voltage of MZM and PCs. A 40 to 10  Gbit  /  s optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) signal demultiplexing experiment has been demonstrated using the time window provided by the proposed scheme. And the results show that the proposed width-tunable optical pulses generation scheme can be used in OTDM demultiplexing.