Abstract
Abstract The presence of pulse front tilt (PFT), caused by angular dispersion (AD) in femtosecond laser pulses, could degrade the performance of the laser system and/or impact the experimental yields. We present a single-shot diagnostic capable of measuring the AD in the x–y plane by adopting an intensity mask. It can be applied to stretched pulses, making it ideal for diagnosing the AD along the amplification chain of a high-power laser system, and to ultrashort pulses exiting from an optical compressor. In this way, it can help in properly characterizing a laser pulse before it is delivered to the target area. In this Letter, we present experimental evidence of AD retrieval for different compression configurations, supported by theoretical analysis.
Highlights
The development of the ultrafast laser system opened up a large number of new research fields
The generation of ultrashort pulses implies a large bandwidth, increasing complexity of the beam propagation, and diagnostics to fully characterize the final pulse in the spatiotemporal domain
When the beam is focused, the actual pulse length in the focal spot is different from the pulse length in the near field, where it is usually measured
Summary
Where σ is related to the spot size, λ0 is the laser central wavelength and ∆ is related to the pulse bandwidth. A numerical Fourier transform is performed, obtaining the simulated focal spot images. The camera had a resolution of 1024 × 1024 pixels, a squared mask of 100 μm with a periodicity of d = 156 μm (commercially available) and a lens with a focal length of f = 300 mm These parameters were chosen to match both the camera and the amplitude mask used in the experimental validation, presented below. The plot shows a clear agreement between the simulated and the retrieved values for a small value of | α |, where the condition σerr [μrad/nm] η σerr [μrad/nm] η
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
