Asymmetric double-pulse interferometric frequency-resolved optical gating for visible-wavelength time-domain spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces an innovative double-pulse interferometric FROG technique that enhances visible-wavelength time-domain spectroscopy, achieving subcycle temporal resolution and phase preservation for ultrafast material analysis.

Contribution

It presents a novel interferometric FROG method with a double-pulse scheme that enables phase-locking and phase preservation, extending time-domain spectroscopy into visible wavelengths.

Findings

Numerical simulations demonstrate phase-locking in double-pulse FROG.

The method achieves subcycle temporal resolution.

It allows ambiguity-free measurement of complex dielectric functions.

Abstract

Ultrafast science and technology have brought in burgeoning opportunities to optical metrology, strong-field physics, non-equilibrium physics, etc., through light-matter interaction due to ever-advancing temporal resolution and peak power of ultrafast laser. The superior temporal and spectral resolution, has brought forth pump-probe spectroscopy for ultrafast dynamic study of transient states in various intriguing materials, such as quantum materials, metamaterials, and plasmonic materials, by directly reporting spectroscopic complex response function, using either time- or frequency-domain- based probes. In stark contrast to its frequency-domain counterparts, e.g., FTIR and ellipsometry, time-domain spectroscopy outstands by providing not only superb spectroscopic phase sensitivity but also exceptional temporal resolution due to its pulsed nature. To extend detection range of time-domain spectroscopy into the challenging visible frequencies, we propose an interferometry-type frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG). Our numerical simulation shows, when operating in a carefully engineered double-pulse scheme, a unique phase-locking mechanism can be activated, and therefore preserves both zero- and first-order phases, that are otherwise inaccessible to standard FROG measurement. Followed by time-domain signal reconstruction and analysis protocol, we show that time-domain spectroscopy with subcycle temporal resolution is enabled and well suits the need of ultrafast-compatible and ambiguity-free method for complex dielectric function measurement at visible wavelengths.