PHASE AND INTENSITY CHARACTERIZATION OF FEMTOSECOND PULSES FROM A CHIRPED-PULSE AMPLIFIER BY FREQUENCY-RESOLVED OPTICAL GATING

Frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) measurements were made to cha racterize pulses from a Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplified laser syst em. By characterizing both the pulse intensity and the phase, the FROG data provided the first direct observation to our knowledge of residu al phase distortion in a chirped-pulse amplifier. The FROG technique w as also used to measure the regenerative amplifier dispersion and to c haracterize an amplitude-shaped pulse. The data provide an experimenta l demonstration of the value of FROG for characterizing complex pulses , including tailored femtosecond pulses for quantum control.