Yoshinori OSHITA^*, Tsuyoshi KONISHI¹ and Yoshiki ICHIOKA²

Osaka Science and Technology Center, 2-7-1, Ayumino, Izumi, Osaka 594-1157, Japan ¹Department of Material and Life Science, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan ²Nara National College of Technology, 22, Yatamachi, Yamatokoriyama, Nara 639-1080, Japan

(Received March 7, 2002; Accepted May 20, 2002)

We propose an ultrafast optical time-to-two-dimensional (2-D) space conversion system using a crystal of β-BaB₂O₄. The proposed system can optically retrieve a 2-D spatial distribution (an image signal) from an ultra-short laser pulse modulated by an image. The fundamentals are the time-to-space transform and the spatial time-frequency transform. Optical time gating using a nonlinear optical crystal is applied for the time-to-space transform. The experimental system can convert modulated temporal signals into 2-D spatial distribution at the bit rate of 8 Tbit/s.

Key words: ultrafast optics, ultrashort pulse, nonlinear optical processing, optical spectrogram, nonlinear optical crystal, SHG crystal, time-frequency transform