Experimental demonstration of superluminal space-to-time mapping in long period gratings.

We experimentally demonstrate a superluminal space-to-time mapping process in grating-assisted (GA) codirectional coupling devices, particularly fiber long period gratings (LPGs). Through this process, the grating complex (amplitude and phase) apodization profile is directly mapped into the device's temporal impulse response. In contrast to GA counterdirectional couplers, e.g., Bragg gratings, this mapping occurs with a space-to-time scaling factor that is much higher than the propagation speed of light in vacuum. This phenomenon has been used for synthesizing customized complex optical pulse data sequences with femtosecond features (3.5 Tbit/s data rate) using readily feasible fiber LPG designs, e.g., with subcentimeter resolutions.