Spectral superresolution with ultrashort optical pulses

A superresolution technique for the measurement of transmission, reflection, and absorption spectra is proposed. An ultrashort laser pulse is propagated in a dispersive element and then periodically phase modulated. The temporal modulation is transformed into periodic spectral modulation, for which the number of harmonics, 2M+1, is determined by the modulation index. The modulated pulse is transmitted through (reflected from) the sample to be tested and measured by a spectrometer. By performing 2M+1 measurements for 2M+1 delays between the dispersed pulse and modulation signal, one can restore the spectral response of the sample with superresolution after simple processing. We numerically demonstrate the measurement of the transmission spectrum of an ultranarrow optical filter with a minimum feature of 0.43 pm by an optical spectrum analyzer with a 10 pm resolution. A twentyfold enhancement of the resolution is achieved in the presence of noise with a level of 0.1%. The advantage of the system is its full reconfigurability.