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Laser Pulse Characterization

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Laser Pulse Characterization

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Pulsed lasers can achieve large peak powers by squeezing the energy of a pulse into a small duration of time. This enables applications requiring high intensities such as laser processing and nonlinear frequency conversion. Furthermore, ultrashort pulses are critical for probing fast light-matter interactions and for high-speed optical communications. As a result, accurate temporal characterization of pulsed sources is as critical as accurately estimating the pulse energy and spatial and spectral profiles. As discussed in Methods for Pulsed-Laser Operation, techniques can lead to pulse durations ranging from µs to fs. Direct measurements of pulses less than 20 ps using photodetectors remain a challenge as the response time of high-speed photoreceivers is currently limited to 10 ps (see Types of Photoreceivers). Consequently, indirect methods for measuring ultrashort pulses using optical gating techniques have been developed and are discussed below. Prior to addressing the characterization techniques, attributes of a pulse laser’s temporal profile are detailed.

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