Single-shot pump-probe technique by the combination of an echelon and a grating with a time window of 109 ps

TL;DR

This paper introduces a single-shot pump-probe method combining an echelon and a grating to achieve a large 109 ps time window, enabling efficient ultrafast measurements without customization or image blur issues.

Contribution

The study presents a novel combination of an echelon and a grating for single-shot pump-probe measurements with an unprecedented 109 ps time window.

Findings

Achieved a 109 ps time window surpassing previous methods.

Demonstrated the technique on ZnSe's two-photon absorption.

Showed potential for further setup improvements.

Abstract

In this study, using only a single pulse, pump-probe measurement with a large time window of more than 100 ps is implemented. A commercial grating is used to encode a time window of ~ 56 ps in a single pulse; therefore, there is no need for machining customization. In addition, in this technique, the grating surface is accurately imaged, eliminating the image blur problem caused by phase differences in previous echelon-based techniques. Moreover, to make full use of the grating surface and obtain a larger time window, a simple reflection echelon is combined that matches the grating in the time window. This combination encoding strategy results in a total time window of ~ 109 ps and maintains accurate imaging of the grating surface. This time window is an order of magnitude greater than the maximum reported values of the echelon encoding strategy and the angle beam encoding strategy. To demonstrate this single-shot pump-probe technique, the two-photon absorption process of ZnSe and the excited-state absorption process of a symmetrical phenoxazinium bromine salt were studied. The possibility of further improving the experimental setup is also discussed.