Complete single-shot measurement of arbitrary nanosecond laser pulses in time.
For essentially all applications, laser pulses must avoid variations in their intensity and phase within a pulse and from pulse to pulse. Currently available devices work very well for both long (>10ns) and short (<100ps) pulses. But intermediate (~ns) pulses remain difficult to measure and, not surprisingly, are the least stable. Here we describe a simple, elegant, complete, all-optical, single-shot device that measures ~ns pulses and that does not require a reference pulse or assumptions about the pulse shape. It simultaneously achieves a very high spectral resolution of <1pm and a very large delay range of ~10ns (several meters of light travel). It accomplishes both goals using high-efficiency, high-finesse etalons: one to generate high angular dispersion for a high-resolution spectrometer, and another to tilt the pulse front by ~89.9° without distorting it in time. Using this device, we completely measure microchip and fiber-amplifier pulses.
Swamp Optics LLC, Atlanta, GA 30339-2919, USA. pambowlan@gatech.edu
Pamela
P
Bowlan
Rick
R
Trebino
D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*