A novel method is proposed and demonstrated to generate ultrahigh speed, ultrashort flat-top picosecond electrical pulses by combining laser pulse shaping with ultrafast electro-optics sampling technique. Starting with high repetition rate laser pulses, a sequence of birefringent crystals is employed to produce optical pulses with flat-top temporal profile and tunable duration. Subsequent measurement of optical waveforms by an ultrafast photodetector yields high-speed, ultrashort flat-top picosecond electrical pulses. By using two sets of YVO4 crystals for laser pulse shaping, we report on the generation of 704 MHz, 48 picoseconds and 704 MHz, 88 picoseconds flat-top electrical pulses with 16-30 picoseconds rise or fall time. To the best of our knowledge, these results are better than or comparable with the best performance using step recovery diodes and the direct electro-optics sampling technique.
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