High-speed measurements for optical telecommunication systems

The field of high-speed measurements for optical telecommunication systems is reviewed. An emphasis is placed on diagnostics evaluating the temporal electric field of light, i.e., broadly speaking, those that temporally resolve the shape of the optical wave in these systems. Sensitivity to the electric field can be obtained via sampling techniques operating directly in the time domain or via indirect approaches. A survey of characterization techniques used to measure statistical representations of data-encoded sources and complete representations of periodic sources is presented and complemented by the description of experimental implementations and results