Ultrathin femtometer for few-cycle pulses.

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Ultrafast Science
• Laser Technology

Background:

• Precise measurement of ultra-short intense femtosecond pulses is crucial for fields like attosecond physics, ultrafast material processing, and bioimaging.
• Existing methods for femtosecond pulse characterization can be complex and require specialized equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel, in-line, attosecond-stable, ultrathin glass plate autocorrelator for simplified femtosecond pulse measurement.
• To demonstrate the device's capability in measuring few-cycle femtosecond pulses using accessible technology.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a pair of micrometer-thin identical glass plates to create an attosecond-resolved time delay for femtosecond pulses.
• Employed a smartphone camera and custom software for pulse measurement, validated against commercial specifications.
• Tested the autocorrelator with 25 fs (0.3 mJ) and 11 fs (2 nJ) laser pulses.

Main Results:

• Successfully measured femtosecond pulses with high accuracy using the ultrathin autocorrelator and phone camera.
• Demonstrated an 80 fs delay range with attosecond stability.
• Validated performance for both high-energy (mJ) and low-energy (nJ) pulses across visible to IR spectra.

Conclusions:

• The presented ultrathin autocorrelator offers an easy and precise method for measuring femtosecond pulses.
• Its compact and alignment-insensitive nature makes it suitable for space-constrained applications like ultrafast microscopy and attosecond spectroscopy.
• This device democratizes femtosecond pulse characterization, enabling broader accessibility in research and technology.