Angular dispersion and temporal change of femtosecond pulses from misaligned pulse compressors

A misaligned stretcher or compressor in a chirped pulse amplification laser introduces residual angular dispersion into the beam, resulting in temporal distortion of the pulse. We demonstrate that an imaging spectrograph is capable for measuring the angular dispersion of a laser beam by an accuracy...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of selected topics in quantum electronics 2004-01, Vol.10 (1), p.213-220
Main Authors: Osvay, K., Kovacs, A.P., Heiner, Z., Kurdi, G., Klebniczki, J., Csatari, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Atom- och molekylfysik och optik
Chirp
Compressors
contrast
Dispersion
Fysik
Gratings
Laser beams
Laser noise
Natural Sciences
Naturvetenskap
optical pulse compression
Optical pulses
Physical Sciences
Pulse amplifiers
pulse characterization
Pulse compression methods
Pulse measurements
pulse temporal
ultrafast optics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A misaligned stretcher or compressor in a chirped pulse amplification laser introduces residual angular dispersion into the beam, resulting in temporal distortion of the pulse. We demonstrate that an imaging spectrograph is capable for measuring the angular dispersion of a laser beam by an accuracy of 0.2 /spl mu/rad/nm. Using this technique, the analytical expressions of residual angular dispersion of misaligned prism and grating compressors are experimentally proved. Temporal degradations of short pulses due to angular dispersion are studied by measuring the temporal stretch of 16-fs pulses, while the issues of contrast deterioration are also discussed. It is proved that the simultaneous measurement of angular dispersion and pulse duration offers the most precise alignment procedure of prismatic and grating compressors.
ISSN:1077-260X
1558-4542
DOI:10.1109/JSTQE.2003.822917