Single-shot frequency-resolved optical gating for retrieving the pulse shape of high energy picosecond pulses

R Aboushelbaya; A F Savin; L Ceurvorst; J Sadler; P A Norreys; A S Davies; D H Froula; A Boyle; M Galimberti; P Oliveira; B Parry; Y Katzir; K Glize

doi:10.1063/1.5044526

Single-shot frequency-resolved optical gating for retrieving the pulse shape of high energy picosecond pulses

Rev Sci Instrum. 2018 Oct;89(10):103509. doi: 10.1063/1.5044526.

Authors

R Aboushelbaya¹, A F Savin¹, L Ceurvorst¹, J Sadler¹, P A Norreys¹, A S Davies², D H Froula², A Boyle³, M Galimberti³, P Oliveira³, B Parry³, Y Katzir³, K Glize³

Affiliations

¹ Clarendon Laboratory, Unversity of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom.
² Physics Department and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14636, USA.
³ Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.

PMID: 30399934
DOI: 10.1063/1.5044526

Abstract

Accurate characterization of laser pulses used in experiments is a crucial step to the analysis of their results. In this paper, a novel single-shot frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) device is described, one that incorporates a dispersive element which allows it to fully characterize pulses up to 25 ps in duration with a 65 fs per pixel temporal resolution. A newly developed phase retrieval routine based on memetic algorithms is implemented and shown to circumvent the stagnation problem that often occurs with traditional FROG analysis programs when they encounter a local minimum.