Broad spectral range few-cycle laser pulses characterization by using a FASI device

Abstract

Full characterization of few-cycle laser pulses is necessary in many applications. FROG is one of the most widely used full characterization techniques so far, and SRSI is another fresh one with attractive capacity. In this study, we develop a simple device FASI (frequency-resolved optical gating and self-referenced spectral interferometry), which combines the FROG and SRSI in a single device, and both of them are based on the third-order nonlinear effect of transient grating. It is compact with a size of 340 × 240 × 80 mm3. The device owns the advantages of the TG-SRSI method, which can characterize few-cycle pulses with broad spectral range from UV to mid-IR in single-shot mode for well compressed pulses. What’s more, for complex or large chirped pulses, it can also complete the characterization task by using the multi-shot TG-FROG mode. Two few-cycle pulses centered at 800 nm and 1800 nm have been characterized by using this device to verify its ability. It turned out that the proposed FASI device is a powerful tool for broad spectral range few-cycle laser pulses characterization.