Ultrashort optical pulse modulating equipment

Claim 1

Ultrashort optical pulse modulating equipment comprising: pulse generating means for generating drive pulses and clock pulses of a period T in synchronism with electrical signals; laser means supplied with said drive pulses from said pulse generating means, for outputting optical pulses of the period T; external optical modulating means for modulating said optical pulses from said laser means by said electrical signals and outputting said modulated optical pulses; and optical packet generating means supplied with a train of said modulated optical pulses from said external optical modulating means, for time compressing said modulated optical pulse train every m modulated optical pulses and outputting said every m modulated optical pulses as a modulated pulse packet; wherein said optical packet generating means includes: n cascade-connected pulse interval compressing means, n being an integer equal to or greater than 2, a jth one of said pulse interval compressing means including: k optical delay means for causing different delays in modulated optical pulse groups input thereinto, j being 1≦j≦n and k being an integer equal to or greater than 2; optical switching means supplied with modulated optical pulse groups each composed of M j modulated optical pulses, for switching said modulated optical pulse groups one by one to said k optical delay line means one after another; and optical coupler means for optically coupling k modulated optical pulse groups from said k optical delay line means and outputting them as one modulated optical pulse group composed of M j+1 =k×M j modulated optical pulses, M 1 being equal to 1; and control signal generating means responsive to said clock pulses from said pulse generating means to generate n control signals for controlling the switching operation of said optical switching means of said n pulse interval compressing means, respectively.