Cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating of white-light continuum (500–900 nm) generated in bulk media by 1053 nm laser pulses

Abstract

We have efficiently characterized the white-light continuum (WLC) generation covering 500–900 nm in a bulk sapphire plate using 280 fs pulse duration, 1053 nm center-wavelength seed laser pulses. We have acquired the well-optimized smoother region of the WLC spectrum successfully by using an FGS-900 color glass filter (Edmund Optics, Inc.). We have suppressed the spectral components below 500 nm and over 900 nm including an intense 1053 nm residual seed laser peak of the WLC spectrum. The experimental artifacts have been avoided by suppressing the intense 1053 nm seed laser. We employed the sum frequency generation cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (SFG-XFROG) technique for characterization. The XFROG measurement was carried out by introducing the crystal dithering method up to 10° in 2° intervals to obtain the phase matching effectively over the filtered and smoother region of the WLC spectrum. This well-optimized WLC region covering 500–900 nm has significant importance for use as a seed pulse in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) system.