Method of short optical pulse generation

1. A method for generating an optical pulse comprising:

creating, via electrical circuitry in a master oscillator, a square wave pulse with a predetermined pulse repetition rate;

retiming the square pulse with a clock;

recovering an electrical signal from the retimed square pulse; and

sending the recovered electrical signal to a modulator for modulating an optical signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a continuous wave signal at an input of the master oscillator; and

generating an optical pulse from the modulator that is less than about 10 picoseconds.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the generated optical pulse is greater than about 8 picoseconds.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse repetition rate is less than 40 GHz.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical signal is directly recovered from the retimed square wave pulse.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the square pulse is based upon a non-return-to-zero signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

amplifying the recovered signal, wherein a peak-to-peak voltage amplitude of the recovered signal is equal to about twice the voltage potential ‘V π ’ of the modulator.

8. A system for generating optical pulses comprising:

a modulator for modulating a signal received from a continuous wave; and

a drive generator that drives the modulator with an electrical signal for modulating the continuous wave, the drive generator including circuitry configured to:

create a square wave pulse with a predetermined pulse repetition rate,

retime the square pulse with a clock, and

recover the electrical signal from the retimed square pulse.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising:

an amplifier downstream of the clock to amplify the electrical signal prior to reaching the modulator.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein

the modulator is located in a pulse carver, and

the pulse carver includes a single modulator.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the modulated optical signal is less than about 10 ps.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the modulated optical signal is greater than about 8 ps.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the pulse repetition rate is less than about 40 GHz.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the electrical signal is directly recovered from the retimed square wave pulse.

15. The system of claim 8 , further comprising:

a time lens configured to compress the modulated optical signal by about half at a pulse repetition rate of about 40 GHz.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the time lens includes a single pulse modulator.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the modulated optical signal is transmitted to a nonlinear fiber upstream of a linear dispersive device in the time lens.

18. A method for performing testing on a material comprising:

providing the material having a chemical compound;

providing a master oscillator being configured to

create a square wave pulse via electrical circuitry,

retime the square pulse with a clock,

recover a signal from the retimed square pulse, and

sending the recovered signal to a modulator; and

sensing the chemical compound of the material using the master oscillator via LIDAR techniques.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

generating an optical pulse from the modulator that is less than about 10 picoseconds,

wherein the square wave is generated with a pulse repetition rate that is less than about 40 GHz.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the electrical signal is directly recovered from the retimed square wave pulse.