Incoherent frequency-to-time mapping: application to incoherent pulse shaping

After temporal amplitude modulation of a spectrally incoherent optical source the averaged intensity profile at the so-called temporal far-zone regime coalesces with a magnified replica of the spectral density function of the source. This has provided the basis for the generalization of the frequency-to-time mapping technique in the partially coherent case. Based on this fact, temporal intensity waveform generation is demonstrated by spectral filtering the incoherent source before the temporal modulation stage. We refer to this technique as full incoherent pulse shaping. Although only the average intensity of the output signal is properly shaped, intensity fluctuations between the different realizations of the output shaped waveform are shown to be small in the practical situation. Finally, we provide some computer simulations concerning arbitrary picosecond pulse generation from an amplified spontaneous emission source.