Time resolved chirp measurements of gain switched semiconductor laser using a polarization based optical differentiator.

We present a novel implementation of the "phase reconstruction using optical ultra fast differentiation" (PROUD) technique and apply it to characterize the time resolved chirp of a gain switched semiconductor laser. The optical temporal differentiator is a fiber based polarization interferometer. The method provides a fast and simple recovery of the instantaneous frequency from two temporal intensity measurements, obtained by changing the spectral response of the interferometer. Pulses with different shapes and durations of hundreds of picoseconds are fully characterized in amplitude and phase. The technique is validated by comparing the measured pulse spectra with the reconstructed spectra obtained from the intensity and the recovered phase.