Time-domain pulse compression by interfering time-delay operations

We introduce an intuitive and accessible time-domain pulse-compression method. The mechanism is based on the coherent superposition of pulse replicas with different delays directly in the time domain. Simulations show that the delays can be chosen such that constructive interference occurs at the pulse peak, whereas destructive interference occurs in the wings of the pulse. Chirped and complex pulses are compressed to demonstrate the capability and versatility of the method. The pulse durations obtained after compression are close to the duration of the corresponding transform-limited pulse.