title: Characterization of ultrashort optical pulse properties by amplitude-modulation-balanced heterodyne gating.
abstract: We present a general approach for the measurement of the properties of optical pulses by exploiting features of the optical carrier domain. We demonstrate the principle of a novel balanced detection scheme that avoids the difficulties associated with homodyne detection in the baseband used in linear optical sampling methods so far. The residual timing instability of the repetition rate synchronization between mode-locked lasers is measured with the new detection technique.
authors.affiliation: Microoptics Measuring Technologies, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, D-38116 Braunschweig, Germany. Erik.Benkler@ptb.de
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Benkler
authors.forename: Harald R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Telle
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weingarten
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Krainer
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spühler
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Keller