Abstract

It is nowadays possible to generate, in different spectral ranges, ultrabroadband light pulses with transform-limited (TL) duration corresponding to a few optical cycles. Whenever broadband pulses are employed, the dispersion experienced by the pulses causes a frequency chirp which may severely lengthen their duration and influence time-resolved measurements. While it is well known that the relative weight of ground-state versus excited-state oscillations can be controlled by the chirp in the pump pulse, the effects of probe pulse chirp have not been fully investigated [1]. In this paper we show, both theoretically and experimentally, that a pump-probe experiment using strongly-chirped probe pulses can preserve the temporal resolution of the TL pulses.

© 2009 IEEE