Noise sensitivity in characterization of femtosecond pulses using PICASO

Summary form only given. Phase and intensity from correlation and spectrum only (PICASO) is a recently developed technique for characterizing the intensity and phase of femtosecond pulses. A pulse spectrum and a nonlinear correlation are measured, and the intensity and phase are retrieved from the experimental data using a multi-dimensional minimization routine. The rms difference between the measured and retrieved correlation, /spl utri/, is a figure of merit in the retrieval algorithm. In order to improve the accuracy of the retrieval and resolve direction of time ambiguities, the correlator can be unbalanced in both amplitude and phase.