Spectral Shearing Interferometry Research Articles

Quantum wave function reconstruction by free-electron spectral shearing interferometry.

The quantum wave function measurement of a free electron remains challenging in quantum mechanics and is subject to disputes about ψ-ontic/epistemic interpretations of the wave function. Here, we theoretically propose a realistic spectral method for reconstructing quantum wave function of an electron pulse, free-electron spectral shearing interferometry (FESSI). We use a Wien filter to generate two time-delayed replicas of the electron wave packet and then shift one replica in energy using a light-electron modulator driven by a mid-infrared laser. As a direct demonstration, we numerically reconstruct a pulsed electron wave function with a kinetic energy of 10 keV. FESSI is experimentally feasible and enables us to fully determine distinct orders of spectral phases and their physical implications in quantum foundations and quantum technologies, providing a universal approach to characterize ultrashort electron pulses.

Direct electric-field reconstruction of few-cycle mid-infrared pulses in the nanojoule energy range.

Amid the increasing potential of ultrafast mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser sources based on transition metal doped chalcogenides such as Cr:ZnS, Cr:ZnSe, and Fe:ZnSe lasers, there is a need for direct and sensitive characterization of mid-IR mode-locked laser pulses that work in the nanojoule energy range. We developed a two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry (2DSI) setup to successfully demonstrate the direct electric-field reconstruction of Cr:ZnS mode-locked laser pulses with a central wavelength of 2.3 µm, temporal duration of 30.3 fs, and energies of 3 nJ. The reconstructed electric field is in reasonable agreement with an independently measured intensity autocorrelation trace, and the quantitative reliability of the 2DSI measurement is verified from a material dispersion evaluation. The presented implementation of 2DSI, including a choice of nonlinear crystal as well as the use of high-throughput dispersive elements and a high signal-to-noise ratio near-IR spectrometer, would benefit future development of ultrafast mid-IR lasers and their applications.

Doppler effect as a tool for ultrashort electric field reconstruction

We present a new, to the best of our knowledge, variant of the spectral-shearing interferometry method for characterizing ultrashort laser pulses. This original approach, called Doppler effect e-field replication (DEER), exploits the rotational Doppler effect for producing frequency shear and provides spectral shearing in the absence of frequency conversion, enabling operation in the ultraviolet spectral range. Evaluation of the DEER-spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction setup reveals a phase reconstruction of great reliability. Possible improvements, benefits, and worthwhile prospects of the method are discussed.

A compact, highly stable spectral shearing interferometer to accurately reconstruct ultrafast laser fields

This paper presents a compact design for spectral shearing interferometry to reconstruct an ultrafast electric-field (SPIDER) with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and stability. Compared experimentally with the traditional SPIDER based on a Michelson interferometer (MI), this design can improve the SNR by a factor of 3.7 in a 25 dB BW region. Using the material dispersions of 6 mm BK7 plates as a target, the phase errors between the measured and theoretical values are less than 2.6 mrad, which is improved by a factor of ~4 from 10.3 mrad measured with the MI-based version. Even for a 1 mm fused silica plate, the measured phase errors are less than 2.1 mrad from the calculated values. Using this design for a 3-day test of our ultrashort pulse laser system, the variation in the output pulse width from the first to the third day is only 1.5%. We attribute this excellent performance to the common-path and all-transmission design of the test pulse pair, giving the design superior capacity against external disturbances. Our design can also work with the two-step phase-shift (TSPS) method to improve its measurement of the plulses with complex temporal/spectral structures.

Experimental single-photon pulse characterization by electro-optic shearing interferometry

The ability to characterize the complete quantum state of light is essential for both fundamental and applied science. For single photons the quantum state is provided by the mode that it occupies. The spectral temporal mode structure of light has recently emerged as an essential means for quantum information science. Here we experimentally demonstrate a self-referencing technique to completely determine the pulse-mode structure of single photons by means of spectral shearing interferometry. We detail the calibration and resolution of the measurement and discuss challenges and critical requirements for future advances of this method.

Spatio-temporal characterization of intense few-cycle 2 μm pulses.

We present a variant of spatially encoded spectral shearing interferometry for measuring two-dimensional spatio-temporal slices of few-cycle pulses centered around 2 μm. We demonstrate experimentally that the device accurately retrieves the pulse-front tilt caused by angular dispersion of two-cycle pulses. We then use the technique to characterize 500-650 μJ pulses from a hollow fiber pulse compressor, with durations as short as 7.1 fs (1.3 optical cycles).

X-SEA-F-SPIDER characterization of over octave spanning pulses in the infrared range.

We show a practical implementation of a pulse characterization method for sub-cycle pulse measurements in the infrared spectral range based on spectral shearing interferometry. We employ spatially-encoded arrangement filter-based spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction with external ancila pulses (X-SEA-F-SPIDER). We show merits and limitations of the setup and an in-depth comparison to another widely used temporal characterization technique - Second-Harmonic Generation Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (SHG-FROG). The X-SEA-F-SPIDER implementation presented in this paper allows measurement of sub-cycle pulses with over one octave wide spectrum spanning the 900-2400 nm range without adding any extra dispersion due to the pulse characterization apparatus.

Coherent artifact study of two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry

We study multi-shot intensity-and-phase measurements of unstable trains of ultrashort pulses using two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry (2DSI). We find that, like other interferometric ultrashort-laser pulse-measurement methods, it measures only the coherent artifact and so yields effectively only a lower bound to the pulse length. We also attempt to identify warning signs of pulse-shape instability in 2DSI and find that it responds to instability with reduced fringe visibility, although this effect is very small when using the small spectral shears appropriate for large temporal ranges. We conclude that 2DSI should be used with caution and large-shear measurements or alternative techniques should be used to verify the stability of the pulse train.

Optimized ancillae generation for ultra-broadband two-dimensional spectral-shearing interferometry

We introduce a scheme to overcome the challenges of ancillae preparation in traditional spectrally-sheared interferometry techniques for pulse characterization. The approach, applied to two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry, reliably characterizes few-optical-cycle pulses from UV to IR.

X-ray-pulse characterization by spectral shearing interferometry using three-wave mixing

X-ray-pulse characterization by spectral shearing interferometry using three-wave mixing

Microjoule-level, tunable sub-10 fs UV pulses by broadband sum-frequency generation.

We introduce a scheme for the generation of tunable few-optical-cycle UV pulses based on sum-frequency generation between a broadband visible pulse and a narrowband pulse ranging from the visible to the near-IR. This configuration generates broadband UV pulses tunable from 0.3 to 0.4 μm, with energy up to 1.5 μJ. By exploiting nonlinear phase transfer, transform-limited pulse durations are achieved. Full characterization of the UV pulse spectral phase is obtained by two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry, which is here extended to the UV spectral range. We demonstrate clean 8.4 fs UV pulses.

Spectral phase characterization of ultrashort pulse using fringe free interferometry

There are presented analytical and experimental results of a novel method which enables significant simplifications in spectral shearing interferometry as applied for ultrashort optical pulse measurements. The method attempts to improve the superiority in conventional Spectral Phase Interferometry for Direct Electric-field Reconstruction (SPIDER). It doesn’t split a test pulse into two parts, but compensates for the delay time between two quasi-monochromatic frequency components in a chirped pulse with spectral and temporal shear to produce an interferogram without fringe. Fringe free interferograms could simplify data processing procedures and reduce the restriction on resolution of spectrometers. The experimental setup avoids the influence of material dispersion with real-time and single-shot nature, and could be made up as a miniaturization measurement device. Although being short of the beauties in SPIDER, it still could be an optional femtosecond pulse measurement method in certain conditions.

THE AMPLITUDE AND PHASE MEASUREMENTS OF FEMTOSECOND PULSE USING FRINGE FREE INTERFEROMETRY OF SPECTRAL HIGH-RESOLUTION METHOD

In this paper, we present analytical and experimental results of a novel method which enables significant simplifications in spectral shearing interferometry as applied for ultrashort optical pulse measurements. The method attempts to improve the superiority in conventional spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). It does not split a test pulse into two parts, but compensate for the delay time between two quasi-monochromatic frequency components in a chirped pulse with spectral and temporal shear to produce an interferogram without fringe. Fringe free interferogram could simplify data processing procedure and reduce the restriction on resolution of spectrometer. The experimental setup avoids the influence of material dispersion with real-time and single-shot nature, and could be made up as a miniaturization measurement device. Although being short of the beauties in SPIDER, it still could be an optional femtosecond pulse measurement method in certain condition.

Spatio-temporal characterization of mid-infrared laser pulses with spatially encoded spectral shearing interferometry

We report on the spatially resolved full amplitude and phase characterization of mid-infrared high intensity laser pulses generated in a three stage OPA. We use a spatially-encoded arrangement (SEA-)SPIDER with spectral filters for ancilla generation for spatially resolved characterization. Using five interchangeable filter sets we are able to characterize pulses from 1 to 2 μm with one single device with minimal adjustments.

Pulse synthesis in the single-cycle regime from independent mode-locked lasers using attosecond-precision feedback

We report the synthesis of a nearly single-cycle (3.7 fs), ultrafast optical pulse train at 78 MHz from the coherent combination of a passively mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser (6 fs pulses) and a fiber supercontinuum (1-1.4 μm, with 8 fs pulses). The coherent combination is achieved via orthogonal, attosecond-precision synchronization of both pulse envelope timing and carrier envelope phase using balanced optical cross-correlation and balanced homodyne detection, respectively. The resulting pulse envelope, which is only 1.1 optical cycles in duration, is retrieved with two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry (2DSI). To our knowledge, this work represents the first stable synthesis of few-cycle pulses from independent laser sources.

Sub-4-fs laser pulse characterization by spatially resolved spectral shearing interferometry and attosecond streaking

We demonstrate the generation of high-energy sub-2-cycle laser pulses generated through hollow core fibre pulse compression. We demonstrate their full characterization with two independent methods. For all-optical characterization in amplitude and spectral phase, we employ spatially encoded arrangement spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction using spectrally filtered ancilla beams to characterize the sub-4-fs pulses with spatial resolution. For field-sensitive pulse characterization, we generate isolated attosecond pulses around 93 eV. The attosecond pulse as well as the infrared few-cycle pulse is characterized in amplitude and phase using the frequency resolved optical gating for complete reconstruction of the attosecond bursts technique. We find good agreement between the two methods.

A neutron diagnostic for high current deuterium beams

A neutron diagnostic for high current deuterium beams is proposed for installation on the spectral shear interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER, Source for Production of Ion of Deuterium Extracted from RF plasma) test beam facility. The proposed detection system is called Close-contact Neutron Emission Surface Mapping (CNESM). The diagnostic aims at providing the map of the neutron emission on the beam dump surface by placing a detector in close contact, right behind the dump. CNESM uses gas electron multiplier detectors equipped with a cathode that also serves as neutron-proton converter foil. The cathode is made of a thin polythene film and an aluminium film; it is designed for detection of neutrons of energy >2.2 MeV with an incidence angle < 45°. CNESM was designed on the basis of simulations of the different steps from the deuteron beam interaction with the beam dump to the neutron detection in the nGEM. Neutron scattering was simulated with the MCNPX code. CNESM on SPIDER is a first step towards the application of this diagnostic technique to the MITICA beam test facility, where it will be used to resolve the horizontal profile of the beam intensity.

Accuracy measurements and improvement for complete characterization of optical pulses from nonlinear processes via multiple spectral-shearing interferometry

We demonstrate that multiple spectral-shearing interferometry increases the precision and accuracy of measurements of the spectral phase of a complex pulse (time-bandwidth product = 125) arising from self-phase modulation in a gas filled capillary. We verify that the measured interferometric phase is accurate to 0.1 rad across the full bandwidth by checking the consistency between the spectral phases of each individual shear measurement. The accuracy of extracting pulse parameters (group delay dispersion, pulse duration and peak intensity) for single shear measurements were verified to better than 10% by comparison with the multishear reconstruction. High order space-time coupling is quantified across a single transverse dimension, verifying the suitability of such pulses for use in strong field experiments.

Spectral Phase Characterization of Two-Octave Bandwidth Pulses by Two-Dimensional Spectral Shearing Interferometry Based on Noncollinear Phase Matching With External Pulse Pair

Noncollinear phase matching with an external powerful reference pulse pair and an extremely broadband pulse to be measured in two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry enabled us to characterize its spectral phase over the so-far broadest wavelength range from 328 to 1363 nm. The method has the additional advantage of the shorter measurement time (10 s) and higher sensitivity (at least 100 times) compared to conventional modified spectral-phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction. This result exceeding two octaves suggests a possibility of the first generation of a single subcycle pulse in the ultraviolet to near-infrared region by the application to the feedback chirp compensation of the induced phase-modulated pulse with the use of a recently developed spatial light modulator with an over-two-octave bandwidth.

Frequency-Varying Spectral Shear Interferometry for Characterization of Extremely Short Attosecond Pulses

We theoretically investigate the complete amplitude and phase characterization of the isolated attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) electric field by the spectral phase interferometry technique. Spectral shear needed for reconstruction of the spectral phase of the XUV pulse is prepared by modulating the driving optical pulse into two with different central wavelengths. We find that the spectral shear between the XUV pulses is almost linearly variable with the frequency, thus the phase reconstruction algorithm is modified by a non-uniformly sampled step concatenation. Numerical simulation using the harmonic spectrum and phase obtained from the saddle point analysis based on the widely used Lewenstein model indicates that this novel method is capable of measuring extremely short attosecond XUV pulses with several advantages owing to the all-optical apparatus: high efficiency and high time resolution, possibility of single-shot measurement, which provides a beneficial improvement to the current complicated photoelectron spectroscopic technique. We suggest that such a method is easy to implement, and propose a feasible experimental arrangement.