Acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter for adaptive compensation of group delay time dispersion in laser systems

It is demonstrated in this communication that using an acousto-optic interaction in an anisotropic birefringent medium it is possible to produce a chirped optical signal reproducing an original acoustic signal. This acoustic signal can then be used to generate a pre-distorted optical signal at the input of a laser chain to compensate for group delay time dispersions within the chain. The first experiments achieved with such a device are reported. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.