Spectral and temporal Bloch oscillations in optical fibres

Inspired by the space-time duality of paraxial beam diffraction and dispersive pulse spreading, the experimental implementation of a temporal equivalent of evanescently coupled waveguide arrays is demonstrated. Pulses interact with a time-periodic potential during their propagation through an optical fibre and the generic effect of discrete diffraction is observed in time. The presented system allows fast and high-resolving measurements of the complete signal evolution. To demonstrate the advanced capabilities, Bloch oscillations of an optical signal in both the time and frequency domains are realised.