Collinear type II second-harmonic-generation frequency-resolved optical gating for the characterization of sub-10-fs optical pulses

For the first time to our knowledge, we demonstrate a collinear frequency-r esolved optical gating (FROG) technique that is suitable for the characteri zation of sub-10-fs pulses. This FROG variant does not suffer from geometri cal blurring effects, and a temporal resolution of 1 fs can be achieved wit hout the need for additional aperturing. The apparatus is suitable for subn anojoule pulse energies. We apply this technique for the full characterizat ion of pulses from a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. (C) 2000 Opti cal Society of America OCIS codes: 320.0320, 320.5550, 320.7100, 120.5050.