The present invention is an optical waveform shaper that utilizes a plurality of interferometers. Each interferometer has one of two types of transfer functions. One type is a first transfer function characterized as having a positive second order derivative of the output optical power in respect to the input optical power. Another type is a second transfer function characterized as having a negative second order derivative of the output optical power in respect to the input optical power. The characteristics of both the first transfer function and the second transfer function are actualized when the input optical power is in the neighborhood of zero and the output optical power shows substantially periodic change with respect to the input optical power. At least one of the plurality of interferometers uses the second transfer function.