Enhanced dynamic range spatio-spectral metrology of few-cycle laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectral filtering and stitching method to improve the dynamic range of spatio-spectral metrology, enabling accurate characterization of few-cycle laser pulses with broad bandwidths.

Contribution

It proposes a robust, simple spectral filtering and stitching technique to enhance measurement dynamic range for ultra-short, high-power laser pulses.

Findings

Enhanced dynamic range allows accurate few-cycle pulse reconstruction.

Method demonstrated on INSIGHT, IMPALA, and Fourier transform spectrometry.

Addresses sensitivity discrepancies across wavelengths in metrology.

Abstract

Accurate spatio-temporal and spatio-spectral metrology is critical to the characterization and use of ultra-short, high-power lasers. The emergence of few cycle pulses, with bandwidths of tens or hundreds of nanometers, poses a significant challenge to existing metrology techniques. This is due both to large discrepancies in the sensitivities of the measurements at different wavelengths and to variation in the spectral intensity at those wavelengths. In this paper, the authors propose spectral filtering and stitching of the measurements as a robust, simple solution that enhances the dynamic range of the measurements, allowing accurate few-cycle pulse reconstruction. This enhancement is demonstrated using INSIGHT -- the most commonly used spatio-spectral measurement device -- as well as using IMPALA and spatially resolved Fourier transform spectrometry.