Ultra-short optical pulse measurement using a thick nonlinear crystal

1. A pulse measurement apparatus comprising:

a splitter for splitting a pulse to be measured into two sub-pulses propagating along different beam paths;

a non-linear medium, capable of up-conversion of radiation propagating therethrough, arranged in said beam paths;

wherein each sub-pulse is resolvable into an o-wave component and an e-wave component propagating through the medium at a predetermined angle, and wherein a phase-matching function for up-conversion by interaction of the o-wave component with the e-wave component in the non-linear medium is such that up-conversion is substantially independent of frequency for one of the o-wave or e-wave over a predetermined frequency range, and is frequency selective for the other of the o-wave and e-wave;

at least one element for interfering the up-converted pulses resulting from propagation of the two sub-pulses in the non-linear medium; and

detection apparatus for detecting the result of the interference to obtain at least one of spectral and temporal characteristics of the pulse to be measured.

2. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the frequency at which the phase-matching function for up-conversion of the non-linear medium is frequency selective, for one of the o-wave or e-wave, is dependent on the angle of propagation of the radiation relative to the optic axis of the non-linear medium.

3. A pulse measure apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the non-linear medium is oriented such that the predetermined angle of propagation of each sub-pulse satisfies the condition that there is a group velocity mismatch between the input sub-pulse o-wave and the input sub-pulse e-wave.

4. A pulse measure apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the non-linear medium is oriented such that the predetermined angle of propagation of each sub-pulse satisfies the condition that there is a group velocity match between the input sub-pulse o-wave and the up-converted e-wave.

5. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the angles of propagation of the two sub-pulses in the non-linear medium are selected such that each sub-pulse experiences a different frequency-selective phase-matching for up-conversion, to produce up-converted pulses that are spectrally sheared with respect to each other.

6. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the spectrally sheared pulses are spatially displaced with respect to each other.

7. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the splitter produces sub-pulses that are substantially identical, temporally and spectrally, to the pulse to be measured.

8. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the splitter comprises one of: a Wollaston prism; and a pair of mirrors side by side tilted with respect to each other.

9. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a waveplate for orienting the plane of polarization of both the sub-pulses such that each sub-pulse has an o-wave component and an e-wave component in the non-linear medium.

10. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a dispersive prism for spectrally analyzing the interfering up-converted pulses.

11. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the detection apparatus comprises a two dimensional detector array for measuring the spectral and spatial interference of the two up-converted pulses.

12. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the beam-paths of the two sub-pulses propagating in the non-linear medium are non-collinear, and the angle between the beam-paths is less than 2°.

13. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the non-linear medium is capable of up-conversion of radiation by sum frequency generation.

14. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the non-linear medium is comprised of at least one selected from the group consisting of KDP, KD*P, BBO and LBO.

15. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined angle of propagation of each of the two sub-pulses in the non-linear medium is in the range of 65° to 70° with respect to the optic axis of the medium.

16. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the non-linear medium is at least 5 mm thick.

17. A pulse measurement apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pulse to be measured is sub-picosecond in duration.

18. A method of pulse measurement comprising:

splitting a pulse to be measured into two sub-pulses propagating along different beam paths;

generating spectrally sheared up-converted versions of the sub-pulses by arranging in said beam paths a non-linear medium, capable of up-conversion of radiation propagating therethrough;

wherein each sub-pulse is resolvable into an o-wave component and an e-wave component propagating through the medium at a predetermined angle, and wherein a phase-matching function for up-conversion by interaction of the o-wave component with the e-wave component in the non-linear medium is such that up-conversion is substantially independent of frequency for one of the o-wave or e-wave over a predetermined frequency range, and is frequency selective for the other of the o-wave and e-wave;

interfering the up-converted pulses resulting from propagation of the two sub-pulses in the non-linear medium; and

detecting the result of the interference to obtain at least one of spectral and temporal characteristics of the pulse to be measured.