All-Optical Temporal Differentiator Using a High Resolution Optical Arbitrary Waveform Shaper

We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical temporal differentiator using a high resolution optical arbitrary waveform shaper, which is based on liquid crystal on silicon switching elements, and both amplitude and phase of the spectrum are programmable. By designing specific transfer functions with the optical waveform shaper, we obtain first-, second-, and third-order differentiators for periodic pulses with small average errors. We also theoretically analyze the bandwidth limitation of optical waveform shaper on the differentiator.