München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 26: Ultrakurze Lichtimpulse: Erzeugung

Q 26.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 23, 2004, 17:00–17:15, HS 223

Compact autocorrelator for online monitoring of tunable 10 fs pulses in the visible and NIR — •Ida Z. Kozma, Peter Baum, Uli Schmidhammer, Stefan Lochbrunner, and Eberhard Riedle — Lehrstuhl für BioMolekulare Optik, Sektion Physik, Ludwig-Maxilimians-Universität München

Noncollinearly phase matched optical parametric amplifiers (NOPAs) are practical sources of sub-30 fs pulses tunable across the visible and infrared spectral range [1]. Their proper use requires precise knowledge about the pulse length and optimal compression. An autocorrelator with a 2 Hz update rate is described which allows to measure the temporal profile of light pulses with durations ranging from about 100 fs to sub-10 fs that are generated at 100 Hz to 10 kHz repetition rate. The device features a dispersion free non-interferometric setup with a simple open loop piezo-electric-translator for scanning the time delay. The precision is ensured by an interferometric calibration procedure. The applicability of the device is demonstrated in the 420-1460 nm wavelength range. The accuracy is proven by the good agreement between the autocorrelation measurement and the intensity autocorrelation computed from a ZAP-SPIDER measurement [2]. The compact design and high sensitivity of the autocorrelator in combination with the real-time data acquisition and evaluation system makes it an ideal tool for the diagnostics of tunable ultrashort light pulses.

[1] E. Riedle, M. Beutter, S. Lochbrunner, J. Piel, S. Schenkl, S. Spörlein, W. Zinth, Appl. Phys. B 71 (2000), 457.

[2] P. Baum, S. Lochbrunner, E. Riedle, Opt. Lett., in print.