Temporally Resolved Intensity Contouring (TRIC) for characterization of the absolute spatio-temporal intensity distribution of a relativistic, femtosecond laser pulse

TL;DR

This paper introduces TRIC, a novel single-shot method that captures the complete spatio-temporal intensity distribution of high-power femtosecond laser pulses with sub-picosecond resolution, aiding plasma physics research.

Contribution

The paper presents a new single-shot technique, TRIC, for detailed characterization of laser pulse intensity distributions in plasma experiments, which was not previously achievable.

Findings

Successfully reconstructed the full spatio-temporal intensity distribution.

Achieved sub-picosecond temporal resolution.

Demonstrated applicability to high-power laser pulses.

Abstract

Today's high-power laser systems are capable of reaching photon intensities up to $10^{22}$ W/cm^2, generating plasmas when interacting with material. The high intensity and ultrashort laser pulse duration (fs) make direct observation of plasma dynamics a challenging task. In the field of laser-plasma physics and especially for the acceleration of ions, the spatio-temporal intensity distribution is one of the most critical aspects. We describe a novel method based on a single-shot (i.e. single laser pulse) chirped probing scheme, taking nine sequential frames at framerates up to THz. This technique, to which we refer as temporally resolved intensity contouring (TRIC) enables single-shot measurement of laser-plasma dynamics. Using TRIC, we demonstrate the reconstruction of the complete spatio-temporal intensity distribution of a high-power laser pulse in the focal plane at full pulse energy with sub picosecond resolution.