Single-Shot Full-Field Characterization of Short Pulses by Using Temporal Annealing Modified Gerchberg–Saxton Algorithm

Abstract

The dispersive Fourier transform is suitable for characterizing short pulses. However, the traditional temporal Gerchberg–Saxton (GS) algorithm suffers from the timing error of measured dispersed waveforms, which limits the measurement performance of the temporal phase. An annealing modified GS algorithm that can simultaneously retrieve the temporal profile and phase is proposed. The inevitable timing error in the measurement can be accurately recovered by the algorithm, which significantly improves the retrieval performance. Based on the annealing modified GS algorithm, an experimental structure is proposed to achieve single-shot full-field measurement. The algorithm is analyzed numerically and the temporal waveform and phase of short pulses can be retrieved successfully in the experiment. The results indicate that this single-shot full-field measurement method is free from timing error, which is important for real applications. The simple single-shot method promises future applications to measure the temporal profile and temporal phase of short pulses with high accuracy simultaneously.