Coherent transient data-rate conversion and data transformation

Temporal compressions of optical pulses and pulse trains have been performed by the photon-echo process in Tm-doped YAG at 793 nm. Single-pulse temporal compression by almost a factor of 500 from $10 \mathit{\mu }\mathrm{s}$ to 22 ns and pulse train compression by a factor of 14 from $5 \mathit{\mu }\mathrm{s}$ to 350 ns with a high-speed frequency-tunable external-cavity diode laser are demonstrated. It is suspected that significantly higher compression could be obtained by improved control of the laser frequency and laser frequency chirps. Theoretically, Tm-doped YAG should be capable of compressing single pulses by almost a factor of ${10}^7$.