[2] It employs group-velocity dispersion (GVD) to transform the spectrum of a broadband optical pulse into a time stretched temporal waveform.
It is used to perform Fourier transformation on an optical signal on a single shot basis and at high frame rates for real-time analysis of fast dynamic processes.
Its nonuniform variant, warped-stretch transform, realized with nonlinear group delay, offers variable-rate spectral domain sampling,[3] as well as the ability to engineer the time-bandwidth product of the signal's envelope to match that of the data acquisition systems acting as an information gearbox.
Consequently, single shot optical spectra, carrying information from fast dynamic processes, can be digitized and analyzed at high frame rates.
Correlation properties in both the spectral and temporal domains can be deduced from single-shot PTS data to study the stochastic nature of optical systems.