Measurement of the shape of picosecond light pulses using stimulated Raman scattering

The vibrational amplitude and the intensity of the Stokes light generated by transient stimulated Raman scattering rise and decay very rapidly. The time duration of the Stokes pulse and of the phonon pulse is much shorter than the pump pulse duration. It is shown that both phonon and Stokes pulses can be used to probe the shape of ultrashort light pulses.