Ultra-broadband dispersing and nondispersing Airy pulses

We present the measurements of the spatiotemporal response of two optical systems generating broadband Airy pulses. One uses a spatial light modulator to impose a cubic phase on the input beam and the other a custom-made refractive phase plate. The main lobe of the Airy pulse is shown to quickly spread in the first case due to strong lateral dispersion while no spreading is present in the latter case. The impulse responses were characterized by applying white-light spatial-spectral interferometry setup based on the SEA TADPOLE technique. The results were compared with simulations.