Single-shot characterization of high-energy short optical pulses at 1.05 micron using spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-fleld reconstruction

Summary form only given. The characterization of ultrashort optical pulses is a useful tool for the optimization of chirped pulse amplification systems. The quality of the output pulse depends on many parameters, including the compensation of dispersion, nonlinear effects, and gain narrowing. Large systems now deliver pulses with peak powers in the 100 TW to1 PW range, but this is useless if the pulse shape is not optimal. The characterization device must be single shot, because of shot-to-shot discrepancies, mostly insensitive to the beam profile, able of working in real-time for optimization, and of course able of providing accurate results. Spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) matches all these constraints. We have implemented SPIDER on a 100 TW laser system (30 Joules, 300 fs) operating around 1 micron.