Optical circuit apparatus, method, and application

A time domain optical waveform generator apparatus, comprising:

• a component that provides a single optical trigger pulse;
• an input optical waveguide disposed to receive the single optical trigger pulse;
• a plurality of coupler stages disposed along and each coupled directly to the input optical waveguide, wherein each coupler stage is characterized by a coupling coefficient that operates on the single optical trigger pulse that can be adjusted to determine an amplitude of an output optical pulse from each coupler stage;
• a modulation input providing time domain digital data directly modulating in the time domain each of the coupling stages with a respective modulation signal that controls the coupling coefficient of the respective coupling stage during operation thereof on the single optical trigger pulse, said respective modulation signals not being constrained to being the same for different coupling stages;
• a plurality of optical time-delay stages each one of which is disposed in the input optical waveguide, intermediate each adjacent pair of coupler stages, wherein each of the time-delay stages is characterized by an adjustable time delay that operates on the single optical trigger pulse;
• an output component optically coupled to the plurality of coupler stages that optically combines the output pulses of the plurality of coupler stages into a pulse train output waveform, wherein a customized output pulse train waveform is created from a plurality of time-interleaved optical signals outputted from the plurality of coupler stages and outputted from the output component.