STRIPED FISH

BOA

STRIPED FISH measures the complete spatio-temporal intensity and phase on a single shot.

SEA TADPOLE can have sub-micron spatial resolution, but it is multi-shot (it averages over many pulses and so requires a stable train of pulses). For complete single-shot spatio-temporal pulse measurement, use STRIPED FISH, which is based on holography.

STRIPED FISH uses only a simple coarse 2D diffraction grating and a standard bandpass filter to accomplish the generation of all the required holograms simultaneously. The bandpass filter naturally passes different colors for different incidence angles. And we rotate the grating slightly, so all the holograms have different colors. Finally, we must use a reference pulse with a smooth (or known) spatial profile and a known temporal intensity and phase (because there is no general method for smoothing it). The resulting holograms yield the complete spatio-temporal intensity and phase of the unknown pulse in space and frequency at the plane of the camera. Fourier transforming into the time domain yields it in space and time there. Performing a diffraction integral then obtains it for other values of the longitudinal distance.

Schematic of a STRIPED FISH device, which simultaneously generates multiple holograms, one for each distinct wavelength in the pulse.

STRIPED FISH traces are tiled arrays of holograms, each at a different color.

A measured STRIPED FISH trace, showing ~50 holograms.

Movie of an actual pulse measured using STRIPED FISH. It is a view of how the eye would see the pulse, but slowed by a factor of approximately 100,000,000,000,000. The dashed white curves are contours of constant intensity, which change with time as the pulse evolves. This pulse has several temporal and spatio-temporal distortions: temporal chirp, spatial chirp, and pulse-front tilt.

Due to the minimal size of the market for STRIPED FISH and the wide variety of possible configurations, Swamp Optics does not sell a standard STRIPED FISH product, but it is happy to assist you in building one for a very reasonable cost.

Learn more about STRIPED FISH on Prof. Trebino's web site.