Title:
Measuring the spatiotemporal electric field of ultrashort pulses with high spatial and spectral resolution

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dc.contributor.advisor Trebino, Rick
dc.contributor.author Bowlan, Pamela en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Jennifer Curtis
dc.contributor.committeeMember John Buck
dc.contributor.committeeMember Mike Chapman
dc.contributor.committeeMember Stephen Ralph
dc.contributor.department Physics en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2009-06-08T19:21:45Z
dc.date.available 2009-06-08T19:21:45Z
dc.date.issued 2009-04-06 en_US
dc.description.abstract In this thesis a powerful and practical method for characterizing ultrashort pulses in space and time is described (called SEA TADPOLE). First we focus on measuring pulses that are spatially uniform but very complicated in time or frequency. We demonstrate and verify that SEA TADPOLE can measure temporal features as small as 30 femtoseconds over durations as long as 14 picoseconds. The spectral resolution of this device is carefully studied and we demonstrate that for certain pulses, we achieve spectral super resolution. We also develop and test an algorithm for measuring polarization shaped pulses with SEA TADPOLE. Our simple interferometer can even be used to measure the spatiotemporal electric field of ultrashort pulses at a focus. This is because SEA TADPOLE samples the field with an optical fiber which has a small core size. Therefore this fiber can be used to spatially sample the beam, so that the temporal electric field can be measured at every position to obtain E(x, y, z, t). The single mode fiber can be replaced with an NSOM (Near Field Scanning Optical Microscopy) fiber so that spatial resolution as low as 500nm (and possibly lower) can be achieved. Using this device we make the first direct measurements of the compete field of focusing ultrashort pulses. These measurement can be viewed as "snap shots" in flight of the focusing pulse. Also, for the first time, we have observed some of the interesting distortions that have been predicted for focusing ultrashort pulses such as the "forerunner" pulse, radially varying group delay dispersion, and the Bessel-like X-shaped pulse. We have also made the first direct measurements of the electric field of Bessel X-pulses and their propagation invariance is demonstrated. We also use SEA TADPOLE to study the "boundary wave pulses" which are due to diffraction. en_US
dc.description.degree Ph.D. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/28188
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Ultrafast optics en_US
dc.subject Interference en_US
dc.subject Diffraction en_US
dc.subject Focusing en_US
dc.subject Pulse measurement en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Interferometry
dc.subject.lcsh Picosecond pulses
dc.subject.lcsh Lasers
dc.subject.lcsh Femtosecond lasers
dc.title Measuring the spatiotemporal electric field of ultrashort pulses with high spatial and spectral resolution en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Trebino, Rick
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename School of Physics
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 40e4f324-6c45-4fe1-ac68-68c3ea37970f
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 2ba39017-11f1-40f4-9bc5-66f17b8f1539
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