Ponderomotive shearing for spectral interferometry of extreme-ultraviolet pulses

We propose a novel method for completely characterizing ultrashort pulses at extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) wavelengths by adapting the technique of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction to this spectral region. Two-electron wave packets are coherently produced by photoionizing atoms with two time-delayed replicas of the XUV pulse. For one of the XUV pulses, photoionization occurs in the presence of a strong infrared pulse that ponderomotively shifts the binding energy, thereby providing the spectral shear needed for reconstruction of the spectral phase of the XUV pulse.     

Characterization of a broadband pulse for phase controlled multiphoton microscopy by single beam SPIDER

We present what we believe to be a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) using only a single-phase and polarization controlled laser beam. Two narrow pulses and one broadband pulse are selected out of an ultrafast laser pulse by a polarization and phase control technique to generate second harmonic generation (SHG) signals, which are equivalent to a spectral shear interferogram in the conventional SPIDER method. The spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse is extracted analytically with double quadrature spectral interferometry (DQSI). An arbitrary spectral phase can be retrieved with great precision and compensated in situ at the sample position of a microscope. This new method requires no separate reference beam and is suitable for nonlinear optical microscopy with a phase controlled laser pulse.     

基于自衍射效应的自参考光谱干涉方法的研究

研究一种基于非线性透明光学介质中的自衍射和自参考光谱干涉的新方法来进行飞秒激光脉冲测量. 实验中, 基于此新方法设计一种简单装置, 对800 nm 中心波长, 约40 fs 近无啁啾飞秒激光脉冲进行测量, 并与自参考光谱相干电场重建法测量结果进行比较, 得到了一致的结果. 此新方法与相应的装置结构简单, 可以对深紫外到中红外光谱范围的飞秒脉冲进行测量. 关键词： 飞秒激光脉冲 自参考光谱干涉 自衍射 脉冲测量     

Single-beam homodyne SPIDER for multiphoton microscopy

We report a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) requiring only a single phase-shaped laser beam. A narrowband probe pulse is selected out of a broadband ultrafast laser pulse by a phase pulse-shaping technique and mixed with the original broadband pulse to generate a second-harmonic generation (SHG) signal. Using another SHG signal solely generated by the broadband pulse as a local oscillator, the spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse can be analytically retrieved by a combination of double-quadrature spectral interferometry and homodyne optical technique for SPIDER (HOT SPIDER). An arbitrary spectral phase at the sample position of a microscope can be compensated with a precision of 0.05 rad over the FWHM of the laser spectrum. It is readily applicable to a nonlinear microscopy technique with a phase-controlled broadband laser pulse.     

Characterization of sub-6-fs optical pulses with spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction

We demonstrate spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) as a novel method to characterize sub-6-fs pulses with nanojoule pulse energy. SPIDER reconstructs pulse phase and amplitude from a measurement of only two optical spectra by use of a fast noniterative algorithm. SPIDER is well suited to the measurement of ultrabroadband pulses because it is quite insensitive to crystal phase-matching bandwidth and to unknown detector spectral responsivity. Moreover, it combines highly accurate pulse-shape measurement with the potential for online laser system diagnostics at video refresh rates.     

Interferometric technique for measuring broadband ultrashort pulses at the sampling limit

We present a new technique for measuring ultrashort optical pulses by use of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction that is suitable for large bandwidth pulses. The method does not require generation of a replica of the pulse to be measured and encodes the spectral phase information in a spatial interference pattern. A major advantage of this method is that the spectral sampling saturates the Whittaker-Shannon bound. Moreover, the technique allows for the characterization of some types of space-time coupling. An experimental demonstration of the technique is presented.     

Implementation of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction with a simultaneously recorded reference interferogram

An improvement of the technique of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction is presented. The possibility of simultaneously recording two interference spectra, one containing complete information on the spectral amplitude and the other containing complete information on the spectral phase, on a single one-dimensional detector is demonstrated. This is, to the author's knowledge, the only method that permits the complete characterization of an ultrashort light pulse with a single one-dimensional integrating detector and an algebraic inversion procedure.     

Two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry for few-cycle pulse characterization

We present a new method for measuring the spectral phase of ultrashort pulses that utilizes spectral shearing interferometry with zero delay. Unlike conventional spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction, which encodes phase as a sensitively calibrated fringe in the spectral domain, two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry robustly encodes phase along a second dimension. This greatly reduces demands on the spectrometer and allows for complex phase spectra to be measured over extremely large bandwidths, potentially exceeding 1.5 octaves.     

Numerical simulation for characterizing femtosecond optical pulses with the SPIDER algorithm

In this article based on the spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER), the femtosecond pulses with various phase characters are numerically simulated. The spectral phases and amplitudes of the transform-limited pulse, the linear chirped pulse, the cubic dispersion pulse, the quartic dispersion pulse, the self-phase modulation pulse and the pulses with the combination of different chirped characters are retrieved. These characterized pulses are applicable to the real-time measurement as samples for diagnosing the chirped characters of pulses quickly.     

双光子自相关测量超短激光脉冲技术的研究

介绍了超短脉冲测量的常用技术,包括二阶自相关法、频率分辨光学开关法、自参考光谱位相相干电场重建法等,提出了一种新的测量方法——双光子自相关测量法,并进行了大量实验,试验表明,利用双光子自相关法能较精确地测量低功率、低重复频率超短脉冲的脉宽。和其他方法相比,试验装置更为简单。     

飞秒脉冲振幅和相位的无干涉条纹重构法测量

对作者所提出的无干涉条纹直接电场重构测量飞秒脉冲的振幅和相位的新方法作出进一步理论分析,并通过实验测量说明该方法的优越性.该方法克服了传统的SPIDER方法的弊病,能得到一组无干涉条纹的图像,排除传统方法必须使用傅里叶变换滤波消除干涉条纹而引进的系统误差,使得该方法能够采用较简便设备且能较准确测量飞秒脉冲强度轮廓和相位.最后给出同一条件下新方法和传统SPIDER方法分别重构的脉冲强度自相关曲线与实验测量结果的比较,以说明新方法的有效性和优越性. 关键词： 光谱相位相干直接电场重构法 飞秒脉冲测量 超快信息光学     

飞秒脉冲振幅和相位的无干涉条纹重构法测量

对作者所提出的无干涉条纹直接电场重构测量飞秒脉冲的振幅和相位的新方法作出进一步理论分析，并通过实验测量说明该方法的优越性.该方法克服了传统的SPIDER方法的弊病，能得到一组无干涉条纹的图像，排除传统方法必须使用傅里叶变换滤波消除干涉条纹而引进的系统误差，使得该方法能够采用较简便设备且能较准确测量飞秒脉冲强度轮廓和相位.最后给出同一条件下新方法和传统SPIDER方法分别重构的脉冲强度自相关曲线与实验测量结果的比较，以说明新方法的有效性和优越性.     

Direct mid-infrared femtosecond pulse shaping with a calomel acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter

Direct amplitude and phase shaping of mid-infrared femtosecond pulses is realized with a calomel-based acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter transparent between 0.4 and 20 μm. The shaped pulse electric field is fully characterized with high accuracy, using chirped-pulse upconversion and time-encoded arrangement spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction techniques. Complex mid-infrared pulse shapes at a center wavelength of 4.9 μm are generated with a spectral resolution of 14 cm(-1), which exceeds by a factor of 5 the reported experimental resolutions of calomel-based filters.     

Spatially resolved amplitude and phase characterization of femtosecond optical pulses

Ultrabroadband pulses exhibit a frequency-dependent mode size owing to the wavelength dependence of free-space diffraction. Additionally, rather complex lateral dependence of the temporal pulse shape has been reported for Kerr-lens mode-locked lasers and broadband amplifier chains and in frequency-domain pulse shapers, for example. We demonstrate an ultrashort-pulse characterization technique that reveals lateral pulse-shape variations by spatially resolved amplitude and phase measurements by use of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). Unlike with autocorrelation techniques, with SPIDER we can obtain spatially resolved pulse characterization even after the nonlinear process. Thus, with this method the spectral phase of the pulse can be resolved very rapidly along one lateral beam axis in a single measurement.     

Temporal control of amplified femtosecond pulses with a deformable mirror in a stretcher

We correct the spectral phases of amplified femtosecond pulses by using a deformable mirror in the stretcher. After the correction the peak intensity is multiplied by 1.5 as a consequence of increasing the contrast by 100x . The spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction is used to characterize the pulse temporally.     

Time-domain interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction by use of an acousto-optic programmable filter and a two-photon detector

We introduce a new approach to the characterization of femtosecond optical pulses based on a remarkably simple setup combining a two-photon detector and a pulse shaper consisting of a longitudinal acousto-optic programmable filter. The operation of this setup is demonstrated through the use of a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction based on time-domain instead of on frequency-domain interferometry.     

Homodyne detection in spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction

We study and demonstrate a version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) that uses self-referencing homodyne detection. This technique has a higher sensitivity than conventional SPIDER, is self-calibrating, and can be adjusted for a wider range of pulse parameters.     

Mirror dispersion control of a hollow fiber supercontinuum

Ultrabroadband chirped mirrors with a bandwidth of 270 THz have been manufactured using the BASIC design approach. These mirrors were used to compress the supercontinuum of cascaded hollow fibers down to 4.6 fs. The pulse duration was measured with spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). PACS 42.65.Re; 42.65.Wi; 42.79.Fm     

Single-shot kilohertz characterization of ultrashort pulses by spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction

We describe a method of characterizing ultrashort optical pulses that is based on the technique of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction and is capable of simultaneously measuring the amplitude and the phase of the electric field of a sub-10-fs pulse at kilohertz acquisition rates on a single-shot basis. Use of this technique results in a dramatic increase (>50x) in acquisition rate compared with that of existing diagnostics for full E-field characterization and opens the door to a range of new experiments in which shot-to-shot phase and amplitude fluctuations are studied at kilohertz rates.     

Broadband spectral shearing interferometry for amplitude and?phase measurement of supercontinua

We present a new concept and the experimental realization of a customized spectral shearing interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) that is capable of measuring complex broadband laser pulses. The combination of an adapted broadband non-collinear phase matching geometry and the implementation of a home-built Fourier spectrometer enabled characterization of amplitude and phase of highly structured supercontinua with a bandwidth of more than 200?THz at pulse energies of less than 0.2?nJ.