Characterization of phase modulated ultrashort pulses using single-shot autocorrelator

Abstract

It is shown that the spatial properties of the second harmonic (SH) beam produced by a single-shot autocorrelator arrangement provide information about pulse spectrum and phase along with that about the pulse envelope. The intensity distribution in the beam, after free propagation over some distance, is equivalent to the autocorrelation trace of a pulse which has passed a negatively dispersive medium of a certain length. In the case of a regularly chirped pulse the beam exhibits cylindrical focusing (or defocusing) and the beam waist corresponds to the halfwidth of the autocorrelation trace of an optimally compressed pulse.