A global model of intensity autocorrelation to determine laser pulse duration

Abstract

We present a new global model of collinear autocorrelation based on second harmonic generation nonlinearity. The model is rigorously derived from the nonlinear coupled wave equation specific to the autocorrelation measurement configuration, without requiring a specific form of the incident pulse function. A rigorous solution of the nonlinear coupled wave equation is obtained in the time domain and expressed in a general analytical form. The global model fully accounts for the nonlinear interaction and propagation effects within nonlinear crystals, which are not captured by the classical local model. To assess the performance of the global model compared to the classic local model, we investigate the autocorrelation signals obtained from both models for different incident pulse waveforms and different full-widthes at half-maximum (FWHMs). When the incident pulse waveform is Lorentzian with an FWHM of 200 fs, the global model predicts an autocorrelation signal FWHM of 399.9 fs, while the classic local model predicts an FWHM of 331.4 fs. The difference between the two models is 68.6 fs, corresponding to an error of 17.2%. Similarly, for a sech-type incident pulse with an FWHM of 200 fs, the global model predicts an autocorrelation signal FWHM of 343.9 fs, while the local model predicts an FWHM of 308.8 fs. The difference between the two models is 35.1 fs, with an error of 10.2%. We further examine the behavior of the models for Lorentzian pulses with FWHMs of 100 fs, 200 fs and 500 fs. The differences between the global and local models are 17.1 fs, 68.6 fs and 86.0 fs, respectively, with errors approximately around 17%. These comparative analyses clearly demonstrate the superior accuracy of the global model in intensity autocorrelation modeling.