Propagation, manipulation, and control of picosecond optical pulses at 1.5 ?m in fiber Bragg gratings

We review the main techniques and the most recent experimental achievements obtained by our group on manipulation and control of picosecond optical pulse trains at 1.5-μm based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) devices of interest in ultrafast optoelectronics. In particular, all-optical techniques for repetition-rate multiplication of picosecond mode-locked pulse trains that use linearly chirped FBGs and pulse-shaping techniques based on Fourier spectral filtering in a novel class of dispersive FBGs are presented. Theoretical and experimental results on the control of the light speed in FBG structures, including superluminal transmission and reflection of picosecond pulses, are also discussed.