Patent ID: 7983561

Claim:
A pulse time spreading device comprising S optical pulse time spreading elements, from a first optical pulse time spreading element to an S-th optical pulse time spreading element, wherein: each of the S optical pulse time spreading elements temporally spreads an input optical pulse into a chip pulse train including (N×j) chip pulses, from a first chip pulse to an (N×j)-th chip pulse, where j is an integer greater than zero, S is an integer greater than one, and N is an integer equal to or greater than S; for each integer n from one to S, the n-th optical pulse time spreading element has (N×j) phase controllers that control the phases of light in the (N×j) chip pulses; and the light in respective chip pulses from the first chip pulse to the (N×j)-th chip pulse output by the n-th optical pulse time spreading element has respective phase angles, measured in radians relative to the phase angle of the light in the first chip pulse, equal to successive integer multiples of 2π {a +( n− 1)/ N} from zero to 2π{a+(n−1)/N}×{(N×j)−1}, where a is a parameter equal to or greater than zero but less than one.