All optical parallel-to-serial conversion by modified spectral holography structure

In this paper, a modified spectral holography structure is demonstrated. Combining the direct space-to-time pulse shaping theory with the modified structure, we can convert a spatial domain x–y image into a y–t image, where one spatial dimension is now transformed into the time domain. Thus we realize the space-to-time or parallel-to-serial conversion. As an example, we generate the temporal equivalent of letter “A”, where each pixel of the image is now represented by a short optical pulse. As a possible application of our scheme, we demonstrate the generation of trains of a femtosecond pulse sequence by our structure. The results of the paper can be applied in ultrashort pulse shaping, ultrafast communication and other relevant areas.