The Temporal Gearbox

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optical analog of mechanical gearboxes using nonlinear dispersion modes to bridge the speed gap between ultrafast optical data and electronic processing, enabling advanced measurements and compression.

Contribution

It presents a novel optical gearbox concept based on nonlinear dispersion modes, providing a new approach to ultrafast optical data handling.

Findings

Mathematical framework for optical gearboxes

Demonstrated utility in ultrafast measurements

Applications in digital image compression

Abstract

We are inspired by mechanical gearboxes and demonstrate its analog counterpart in optics. We use nonlinear dispersion modes as "gears" to overcome the mismatch between the ultrahigh speed of optical data and the much slower sampling rate of electronic digitizers and processors. We delineate the mathematical foundations and show its utility in ultrafast optical measurements and digital image compression.