A single-shot, high-repetition rate scheme for electro-optic detection of short pulses

Abstract

ABSTRACT We consider the problem of shot-by-shot acquisition of pulse shapes at high repetition rate in accelerator-basedsystems. More speci cally, we examine the two-step strategy consisting in (i) encoding the pulse information ontoa laser pulse, and (ii) use the so-called time-stretch strategy to \slow-down the information before recording.We thus show that the repetition rate of already existing electro-optic sampling setups can be straightforwardlyincreased up to the 100 10 6 pulses/s range, and make a demonstration for the detection of coherent THz pulses.The strategy is however not limited to electro-optic sampling of THz pulses or electron bunches. It can be appliedto other types of wavelengths, provided the desired information (as e.g., FEL pulses or electron bunches shapes)can be imprinted onto a laser pulse.Keywords: Coherent Synchrotron Radiation, Electro-optic sampling, Photonic time-stretch, Terahertz optics 1. INTRODUCTION In accelerator-based coherent sources, there is a growing need for pulse shape characterization at high repetitionrates. High repetition rates is encountered in existing Free-Electron Lasers (FEL), when the emission is composedof bursts of pulses at multi-MHz repetition rates.