Abstract

We derive an analytical approximation for the measured pulse width error in spectral shearing methods, such as spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER), caused by an anomalous delay between the two sheared pulse components. This analysis suggests that, as pulses approach the single-cycle limit, the resulting requirements on the calibration and stability of this delay become significant, requiring precision orders of magnitude higher than the scale of a wavelength. This is demonstrated by numerical simulations of SPIDER pulse reconstruction using actual data from a sub-two-cycle laser. We briefly propose methods to minimize the effects of this sensitivity in SPIDER and review variants of spectral shearing that attempt to avoid this difficulty.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

Theory and design of two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry for few-cycle pulse measurement

Jonathan R. Birge, Helder M. Crespo, and Franz X. Kärtner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27(6) 1165-1173 (2010)

Two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry resolved in time for ultrashort optical pulse characterization

Mickaël Lelek, Frédéric Louradour, Alain Barthélémy, Claude Froehly, Tigran Mansourian, Levon Mouradian, Jean-Paul Chambaret, Gilles Chériaux, and Brigitte Mercier
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 25(6) A17-A24 (2008)

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

Rocio Borrego-Varillas, Aurelio Oriana, Federico Branchi, Sandro De Silvestri, Giulio Cerullo, and Cristian Manzoni
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 32(9) 1851-1855 (2015)

Gold-SPIDER: spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction utilizing sum-frequency generation from a gold surface

Matthew E. Anderson, Tobias Witting, and Ian A. Walmsley
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 25(6) A13-A16 (2008)

Phase retrieval via regularization in self-diffraction-based spectral interferometry

Simon Birkholz, Günter Steinmeyer, Sebastian Koke, Daniel Gerth, Steven Bürger, and Bernd Hofmann
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 32(5) 983-992 (2015)