Complete characterization of a spatiotemporally complex pulse by an improved single-frame pulse-measurement technique

Abstract

We further develop a simple device, called Spatially and Temporally Resolved Intensity and Phase Evaluation Device: Full Information from a Single Hologram (STRIPED FISH), for measuring the complete spatiotemporal intensity and phase, I(x,y,t) and ϕ(x,y,t), respectively, of an arbitrary ultrashort pulse on a single camera frame (and hence, on a single shot). We have increased the measurable bandwidth, eliminated most aberrations, and improved the uniformity of the multiple holograms in the device. We demonstrate these improvements by making single-camera-frame measurements of spatiotemporally complex subpicosecond crossed and chirped pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator. In order to display the massive resulting data files—pairs of four-dimensional intensity-and-phase data—we also develop a method for generating intuitive movies of the measured pulses. With these improvements, this device and its resulting movies should be able to perform and intuitively display true single-shot spatiotemporal measurements of most current ultrashort pulses.