TEMPORAL DECORRELATION OF SHORT LASER-PULSES

We describe a unique approach for extracting the temporal profile of u ltrashort laser pulses from typical autocorrelation measurements. The use of the constraint that intensity is a nonnegative quantity enables an iterative numerical algorithm to reconstruct pulse shapes in a one -dimensional procedure. With the reconstruction of the intensity profi le, the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm can be used to retrieve the phase o f the electric field from a spectral measurement. Because these proced ures are carried out in one dimension, they are numerically much faste r than two-dimensional techniques such as frequency-resolved optical g ating. Their high computational efficiency can save substantial time b y constructing good trial solutions for the more accurate but slower p rocedure of frequency-resolved optical gating. (C) 1998 Optical Societ y of America.