TEMPORAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LASER PULSES FROM JIGUANG-I LASER FACILITY WITH A COMPACT DUAL FUNCTION AUTOCORRELATOR

An optical pulse autocorrelator for rapid and slow scanning is described in this paper. Using an audio loudspeaker on one arm, an interferometric rapid-scanning signal of the output from a high-repetition laser oscillator is obtained. However, by adjusting the positions of the mirrors and using a step-motor on another arm, the intensity autocorrelation function of the output from a low-repetition laser amplifier can be easily measured. Using all-reflecting optics and an adequate nonlinear crystal, the whole instrument is very compact and has been used to measure sub-20 fs light pulses in both configurations with excellent agreement. In the slow-scanning configuration, a pulse train as long as 500ps has been determined. Using this autocorrelator, the home-made JIGUANG-I CPA laser facility was characterized for its pulse duration evolution.