Coherent artifact in modern pulse measurements

We simulate multishot intensity-and-phase measurements of unstable trains of complex ultrashort pulses using second-harmonic-generation (SHG) frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) and spectral-phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). Both techniques fail to see the pulse structure. But FROG yields the correct average pulse duration and suggests the instability by exhibiting significant disagreement between measured and retrieved traces. SPIDER retrieves the correct average spectral phase but significantly underestimates the average pulse duration. In short, SPIDER measures only the coherent artifact. An analytical calculation confirms this last fact.     

Convergence test for inversion of frequency-resolved optical gating spectrograms

We describe a new and simple method to aid in the analysis of retrieved pulses from inverted frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) traces. The analysis can separate noise from distortion and shows that distortion is more deleterious to the retrieved pulse than is pure noise. The analysis relies on the fact that FROG traces can be constructed from a single outer product of two vectors, whereas distortion and noise require the sum of a series of outer products.     

飞秒激光脉冲宽度和脉冲波形测试技术

飞秒激光在激光核聚变、卫星精密测距、激光微加工等领域具有重要的应用前景,同时也是产生太赫兹波的主要泵浦源。介绍了国内外飞秒激光脉冲宽度和脉冲波形的测试方法,比较了自相关法、频率分辨光学快门法、光谱相位相干直接电场重构法的优缺点。自相关法具有脉宽测量范围广、结构简单等特点,但不具备脉冲波形测试能力。光谱相位相干直接电场重构法对待测激光光束质量要求较高, 不适合大量程范围激光脉宽快速测量。为满足10 fs~5 ps大量程范围超短激光脉冲宽度和脉冲波形的测试需求,采用自相关法及二次谐波频率分辨光学开关法研制飞秒激光脉冲宽度和脉冲波形测试仪,时间分辨率优于2 fs。     

The criterion of pulse reconstruction quality based on Wigner representation

We propose a new criterion for the assessment of ultrashort pulse reconstruction quality. Our idea is based on the use of a two-dimensional Wigner representation of the electric field. This allows introducing a single measure to represent the quality of both phase and amplitude retrieval. The new criterion is employed to examine two contemporary pulse characterization techniques: FROG (Frequency Resolved Optical Gating) and SPIDER (Spectral Interferometry for Direct Electric-field Reconstruction). For SPIDER, the influence of reference pulse stretching on the quality of phase extraction is investigated. Next, we ascertain the limitations in the use of a Fabri-Perrot etalon in the SPIDER apparatus for producing delayed pulse replicas. For the FROG technique we examine the impact of the doubling crystal orientation on the quality of the amplitude-phase retrieval of sub-5-fs pulses. The introduced criterion is also applied to study the respective sensitivity of FROG and SPIDERto the limited phase-matching bandwidth of the non-linear medium and detector noise.     

Amplitude ambiguities in second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating

We construct field shapes with distinct amplitude profiles that have nearly identical second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating (SHG FROG) traces. Although such fields are not true mathematical ambiguities, they result in experimentally indistinguishable FROG traces. These fields are neither time-reversed copies nor pulselets with a mere relative phase difference, which are well known nontrivial ambiguities for SHG FROG. We also show that for certain example fields, second-order interferometric autocorrelation is more sensitive to the pulse shape than is SHG FROG.     

飞秒脉冲测量技术

随着飞秒激光技术的发展，飞秒激光脉冲的准确测量已成为非常重要的研究内容。文章在简要概述几种常见测量方法的基础上，着重综述了近年来发展起来的光学频率光栅开关法（FROG）及自参考光谱位相相干电场重建法（SPIDER），并介绍了文章作者进行的相关工作。     

Generation of double pulses in-line by using reflective Dammann gratings

Doubled femtosecond laser pulses in-line are needed in the collinear pump-probe technique, collinear second harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating (SHG FROG) and the spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER), etc. Normally, it is generated by using a Michelson's structure. In this paper, we proposed a novel structure with two-layered reflective Dammann gratings and the reflective mirrors to generate doubled femtosecond laser pulses in line without transmission optical elements. Angular dispersion and spectral spatial walk-off are both compensated. In addition, this structure can also compress the positive chirped pulse, which cannot be realized with a Michelson's structure. By adopting triangular grating and blazed gratings, the efficiency of the system would in principle be increased as the Michelson's scheme. Experiments demonstrated that this method should be an alternative approach for generation of the double compressed pulses of femtosecond laser for practical applications.     

Characterization of the spectral phase of ultrashort light pulses

The complete characterization of a short light pulse requires the measurement of the value of the electric field as a function of time, or conversely, as a function of the optical frequency. Many different techniques have been demonstrated for this purpose. They fall in two main categories, whether a known reference pulse whose spectrum encompasses that of the unknown pulse is available or not. In the first case, linear techniques such as time-domain or frequency-domain interferometry can be directly used, with the advantage of a high sensitivity. In the latter case, non-stationary filters can be implemented using optical non-linearities, in techniques such as Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) or Spectral Phase Interferometry for Direct Electric-field Reconstruction (SPIDER).     

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.     

无干涉条纹的光谱位相相干直接电场重构法

提出一种新的诊断飞秒脉冲振幅与位相的高精度测量方法.该方法发展了传统的SPIDER方法，保留了原方法对脉冲信息可以实时、有效和全面地测取的优点，并能克服其不能测量脉宽较大或位相信息复杂的脉冲的缺点.在新方法中和频后的脉冲对没有相对延时，形成无干涉条纹的剪切干涉图.在调节一个小量延时于某些特定值，可去掉剪切干涉图的歧义性.给出数值模拟结果，证明此方法无需经过傅里叶变换滤波，可直接由干涉图唯一地提取出脉冲的振幅与位相信息. 关键词： 光谱位相相干直接电场重构法 飞秒脉冲测量 超快信息光学     

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.     

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.     

用SHG-FROG方法测量超短光脉冲的振幅和相位

介绍了二次谐波振荡频率分辨光学快门(SHGFROG)测量超短脉冲的实验系统和二维相位恢复算法,这种方法可以实现对超短脉冲振幅和相位的完全测量.利用矩阵方法数值模拟了几种常见超短脉冲的SHGFROG迹线,并用主元素广义投影算法(PCGPA)从这些无噪音的SHGFROG迹线中恢复了脉冲的振幅和相位,误差接近收敛的标准.研究结果表明,这种测量方法结构简单,算法可靠,是测量超短脉冲的理想方法之一.     

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.     

改进型零附加相位光谱相位相干电场重构系统对啁啾脉冲的测量

现有的基于光谱相位相干电场重构法(SPIDER)的脉冲测量系统,在测量啁啾脉冲时容易出现误差.本文提出一个改进型零附加相位光谱相位相干电场重构系统(MZAP-SPIDER),来解决上述问题.在实验上,利用改进后的SPIDER系统测量了钛宝石飞秒激光器输出的脉冲及其经80mm长的BK7玻璃块展宽得到的啁啾脉冲.结果表明,该系统能胜任啁啾脉冲的相位测量.     

飞秒激光脉冲的谐波频率分辨光学开关法测量研究

建立了一台谐波频率分辨光学开关法(FROG)飞秒脉冲测量装置，利用该装置进行了掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光脉冲的测量研究.在二次谐波自相关测得的时域和频域信号基础上，结合对信号光强度分布的计算机迭代处理，得到了有关飞秒激光电场、光谱及其相位的信息，所得脉宽与干涉测量的结果基本一致. 关键词： 频率分辨光学开关法(FROG) 迭代计算 飞秒激光 自相关     

用SPIDER法测量超宽带钛宝石振荡器的激光脉宽研究

用SPIDER方法测量了超宽带钛宝石振荡器输出激光的脉宽，得到7.86 fs的测量结果，这是目前国内所报道的仅用啁啾镜补偿色散、直接从振荡器输出的最短激光脉冲.简要介绍了振荡器的基本结构和SPIDER方法测量装置，并对计算得到的光谱相位进行了讨论和分析.     

光谱位相相干电场法的参数分析及测量

从光谱位相相干电场重构法（ＳＰＩＤＥＲ）的原理出发,实现了算法、讨论时间延迟、光谱剪切量、滤波窗口宽度、色散量等几个方面的优化选取。当展宽器色散和脉冲宽度一定时,脉冲对的时间延迟存在一个最佳取值范围。相对光谱剪切量在５％～１５％间,滤波窗口宽度为／３,重构出的位相误差最小。对干涉图取平均来减小噪声的影响。用ＳＰＩＤＥＲ算法还原了脉冲的电场和位相信息,由ＳＰＩＤＥＲ测量的脉冲宽度为１７.７ fs。同时为了比较,用自相关法测量了同一脉冲,由自相关曲线可估算出脉冲宽度为１６.８ fs,与ＳＰＩＤＥＲ 的误差比为５．１％,说明了实验的有效性。     

Minimization of dispersion in an ultrafast chirped pulse amplifier using adaptive learning

Minimizing residual frequency dispersion that accompanies pulse stretching, amplification, and recompression is an important consideration in ultrashort chirped-pulse amplifiers. Here we show how an adaptive learning algorithm can be used in conjunction with a pulse shaper to compensate for higher-order and nonlinear dispersion in a chirped-pulse amplifier. Using spectral blueshifting as a sensitive diagnostic for pulse shape, we implement a 'learning loop' comprised of the pulse shaper, strong field laser ionization, and a genetic algorithm to minimize dispersion through the amplifier. We verify our optimization results using frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) measurements and also show theoretically and experimentally that spectral blueshifting is indeed a sensitive diagnostic for pulse shape, and specifically, for higher-order dispersion.     

用SPIDER法测量飞秒激光脉冲的光谱相位

介绍了用SPIDER测量光谱相位的实验装置和模拟计算飞秒激光特性参数的原理；提出了Ω 和τ等重要参数的确定方法.实验上用自建的SPIDER进行了掺钛蓝宝石飞秒振荡器输出脉 冲的相位测量，并以此为基础还原出了原输入脉冲的时域形式，模合计算所得的脉宽为107 fs，与利用二次相关法直接测量的结果十分一致. 关键词： 飞秒激光 SPIDER 光谱相位 光谱相干