Electrically controlled optical switches used for extracting single Pulses from a pulse train.

Ultrashort pulses are in most cases generated by a mode-locked Laser in the form of a pulse train with a Pulse Repetition Rate of the order of 10 MHz – 10 GHz. For various reasons, it is often necessary to pick certain pulses from such a pulse train to transmit only certain pulses and Block all the others. This can be done with a pulse picker, which is essentially an electrically controlled optical switch.