Design and implementation of an in-line imaging system and spectrometer for the single-shot grating dispersion scan technique for ultrafast pulse characterization
(2025) In Lund Reports on Atomic Physics (LARP) PHYM03 20242Department of Physics
Atomic Physics
- Abstract
- Ultrafast pulse characterization is an ever-growing field of photonics, given the importance of knowing precisely the outcome of ultrafast laser sources and the impossibility to do so with electronics technology. A new approach to the well-established diagnostics technique d-scan has been recently developed in order to expand the capabilities of the d-scan in a single-shot manner. It is known as single-shot grating d-scan. It provides the possibility to measure pulse durations in a range from 50 fs to 200 fs. This is a milestone in the development of the d-scan technique. Previously, only up to 30 fs have been demonstrated with a single-shot d-scan measurement. In this work, the focus is on the optical design and implementation of an... (More)
- Ultrafast pulse characterization is an ever-growing field of photonics, given the importance of knowing precisely the outcome of ultrafast laser sources and the impossibility to do so with electronics technology. A new approach to the well-established diagnostics technique d-scan has been recently developed in order to expand the capabilities of the d-scan in a single-shot manner. It is known as single-shot grating d-scan. It provides the possibility to measure pulse durations in a range from 50 fs to 200 fs. This is a milestone in the development of the d-scan technique. Previously, only up to 30 fs have been demonstrated with a single-shot d-scan measurement. In this work, the focus is on the optical design and implementation of an imaging system and imaging spectrometer for performing experiments with this new d-scan approach. It is also shown that the designed system in fact is able to perform as needed in order to measure ultrafast laser pulses in the infrared with the single-shot grating d-scan. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- A laser is two mirrors, a bit of crystal or gas in the middle and light bouncing between them, which then is emitted. Since its first conception in 1960, laser technology has evolved greatly over the last 65 years. Now, laser systems can be big enough to take up whole rooms. They are complex and they consist of many parts and stages in order to get the desired output. Out of them we can get pulsed light, which basically means light in the form of very short (in time) outbursts. These bits of light can get down to the order of femtoseconds. A femtosecond is zero-comma-fourteen-zeros-one (0,000000000000001) seconds. Actually quite short. When we are working with this kind of pulsed light, we find ourselves in the ultrafast regime. A lot of... (More)
- A laser is two mirrors, a bit of crystal or gas in the middle and light bouncing between them, which then is emitted. Since its first conception in 1960, laser technology has evolved greatly over the last 65 years. Now, laser systems can be big enough to take up whole rooms. They are complex and they consist of many parts and stages in order to get the desired output. Out of them we can get pulsed light, which basically means light in the form of very short (in time) outbursts. These bits of light can get down to the order of femtoseconds. A femtosecond is zero-comma-fourteen-zeros-one (0,000000000000001) seconds. Actually quite short. When we are working with this kind of pulsed light, we find ourselves in the ultrafast regime. A lot of properties of the light start to get funny in this regime, and many applications arise from it. Among them, we have medicine, fundamental physics studies (such as the possibility to ”take a picture” of molecular vibrations), space technology or communications, to name some of them.
Ultrafast lasers and optics are constantly pushing through the known limits of physics. When one generates such special light, it is also desirable to know what exactly is generated, that means, what is coming out of our laser in terms of the pulse characteristics, such as how long the pulses actually are, and other parameters of interest. In the ultrafast regime, this is not that easy to measure. If we had longer pulses, then we could use some sort of electronics device to measure our laser outcome. However, in these timescales, electronics are too slow to keep up with the laser pulses. We need to situate ourselves at the same speed that we are measuring. A lot of techniques arise for this purpose, where optical elements are used in smart ways in order to obtain a signal from which we can retrieve the characteristics of the pulse. This is the field of ultrafast pulse characterization.
Knowing which optical elements to place in your setup and where to place them before doing experiments in order to achieve a particular goal is also a skill. This is part of the field of optical design. When designing a setup it is important to keep in mind which characteristics are relevant for it: flexibility, compactness, ease of alignment, monetary price, spatial constraints, experimental performance, to name a few. One needs to know which optical element can do what, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of it.
In this master’s thesis the focus lies on the optical design of a system in order to implement a characterization technique for ultrafast pulses. That means, choosing the right optical elements, place them in the right place and study how they behave while evaluating if we can obtain the information of an ultrafast laser pulse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9195752
- author
- López Cerón, Cristina LU
- supervisor
-
- Cord Arnold LU
- Daniel Diaz Rivas LU
- organization
- course
- PHYM03 20242
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Ultrafast optics, optical design, grating, d-scan, ultrafast pulse characterization, spectrometer, imaging
- publication/series
- Lund Reports on Atomic Physics (LARP)
- report number
- LRAP 605
- language
- English
- id
- 9195752
- date added to LUP
- 2025-07-26 09:41:51
- date last changed
- 2025-07-26 09:41:51
@misc{9195752,
abstract = {{Ultrafast pulse characterization is an ever-growing field of photonics, given the importance of knowing precisely the outcome of ultrafast laser sources and the impossibility to do so with electronics technology. A new approach to the well-established diagnostics technique d-scan has been recently developed in order to expand the capabilities of the d-scan in a single-shot manner. It is known as single-shot grating d-scan. It provides the possibility to measure pulse durations in a range from 50 fs to 200 fs. This is a milestone in the development of the d-scan technique. Previously, only up to 30 fs have been demonstrated with a single-shot d-scan measurement. In this work, the focus is on the optical design and implementation of an imaging system and imaging spectrometer for performing experiments with this new d-scan approach. It is also shown that the designed system in fact is able to perform as needed in order to measure ultrafast laser pulses in the infrared with the single-shot grating d-scan.}},
author = {{López Cerón, Cristina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Lund Reports on Atomic Physics (LARP)}},
title = {{Design and implementation of an in-line imaging system and spectrometer for the single-shot grating dispersion scan technique for ultrafast pulse characterization}},
year = {{2025}},
}