ABSTRACT
We take advantage of nonlinear properties associated with chi(3) tensor elements in BaF2 cubic crystal to improve the temporal contrast of femtosecond laser pulses. The technique presented is based on cross-polarized wave (XPW) generation. We have obtained a transmission efficiency of 10% and 10(-10) contrast with an input pulse in the millijoule range. This filter does not affect the spectral shape or the phase of the cleaned pulse. It also acts as an efficient spatial filter. In this method the contrast enhancement is limited only by the extinction ratio of the polarization discrimination device.
ABSTRACT
We report the measurement of spatiotemporal distortions of an ultrashort pulse in singlet beam expanders. With a simple second-order autocorrelator the temporal broadening of the pulse from 23 to 40 fs, due to propagation time difference (PTD), is determined. The delay due to PTD between different parts of the beam is also measured. This effect was theoretically studied for the first time by Bor [J. Mod. Opt. 35, 1907 (1988)]. These experimental results are in good agreement with the calculations of a dedicated three-dimensional ray-tracing program developed to simulate the spatial and temporal transformation of femtosecond pulses in optical systems.
