Patent ID: 8792524

Claim:
An optical system utilizing at least a first chirped optical input wave varying in a predetermined sweep periodicity between first and second wavelength limits, said system comprising: a source of a reference monochromatic optical wave; a coupling circuit receiving the chirped optical input wave and the reference optical wave for combining said waves; an optical waveguide coupled to receive said combined waves from the coupling circuit, the optical waveguide having a chosen third order non-linear susceptibility and group velocity dispersion parameter to generate an output wave by four wave mixing; an optical amplifier in series between the coupling circuit and the optical waveguide; wherein said optical waveguide and said combined waves from the coupling circuit are configured so that said output wave includes a selected chirped waveform varying in a predetermined sweep periodicity between third and fourth wavelength limits having a wavelength span that is a multiple of greater than one of the span of said chirped optical input wave; and wherein the optical waveguide and optical amplifier are combined in a loop configuration with an optical switch to repeatedly multiply the output selected chirped waveform wavelength span by four wave mixing; and a wavelength selective band-pass optical filter receiving the output wave from the optical waveguide for extracting said selected chirped waveform therefrom.