Generating Synchronized WDM Pulses in a Nonlinear Optical Fiber

Pulse shepherding (defined below) can be exploited to impress synchronized amplitude-modulation pulses, with durations of the order of picoseconds, onto beams of light with different wavelengths that propagate together along a single-mode nonlinear optical fiber. This is significant because synchronized picosecond pulses on wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) light beams will be essential for the operation of future ultrafast bit-parallel data-communication systems. In comparison with the customary use of an array of mode-locked lasers to generate synchronized picosecond pulses on WDM beams, the pulse-shepherding approach is simpler and more economical.