Phase measurement of periodic optical pulses using temporal fractional Talbot effect

Proposed and demonstrated is a novel method for time-domain interferometry of optical pulse trains that does not need light pulse splitting. The interference is between time-shifted pulse-train replicas produced in a dispersive delay line via the temporal fractional Talbot effect. A built-in advantage of the method is its low sensitivity to environmental disturbance. In the experiment the method was used to demonstrate phase characterisation of periodic optical pulses.