FROG-measurement based phase retrieval for analytic signals

Abstract

While frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) is widely used in characterizing the ultrafast pulse in optics, analytic signals are often considered in time-frequency analysis and signal processing, especially when extracting instantaneous features of events. In this paper we examine the phase retrieval (PR) problem of analytic signals in CN by their FROG measurements. After establishing the ambiguity of the FROG-PR of analytic signals, we found that the FROG-PR of analytic signals of even lengths is different from that of analytic signals of odd lengths, and it is also different from the case of B-bandlimited signals with B≤N/2. The existing approach to bandlimited signals can be applied to analytic signals of odd lengths, but it does not apply to the even length case. With the help of two relaxed FROG-PR problems and a translation technique, we develop an approach to FROG-PR for the analytic signals of even lengths, and prove that in this case the generic analytic signals can be uniquely (up to the ambiguity) determined by their (3N/2+1) FROG measurements. Phase derivative (or instantaneous frequency) is a significant feature for signal analysis. As an application of our main result, an approach is established to determine the phase derivatives of decaying signals by exploiting the ambiguity.