Complete spatiotemporal and polarization characterization of ultrafast vector beams

Abstract

The use of structured ultrashort pulses with coupled spatiotemporal properties is emerging as a key tool for ultrafast manipulation. Ultrafast vector beams are opening exciting opportunities in different fields such as microscopy, time-resolved imaging, nonlinear optics, particle acceleration or attosecond science. Here, we implement a technique for the full characterization of structured time-dependent polarization light waveforms with spatiotemporal resolution, using a compact twofold spectral interferometer, based on in-line bulk interferometry and fibre-optic coupler assisted interferometry. We measure structured infrared femtosecond vector beams, including radially polarized beams and complex-shaped beams exhibiting both temporal and spatial evolving polarization. Our measurements confirm that light waveforms with polarization evolving at the micrometer and femtosecond scales can be achieved through the use of structured waveplates and polarization gates. This new scale of measurement achieved will open the way to predict, check and optimize applications of structured vector beams at the femtosecond and micrometer scales.

arXiv commentInformation: 37 pages, 15 figures, final version. This work was partially supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action with grant agreement No. 798264, project FastMeasure entitled 'Development and industry transfer of new techniques: full characterization of vector ultrashort pulsed laser beams'

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• On-Chip Optical Skyrmionic Beam Generators
• Spatio-temporal characterization of ultrashort vector pulses
• Focused fields of ultrashort radially-polarized laser pulses having low-order spatio-temporal couplings
• Single-shot 3D characterization the spatiotemporal optical vortex via a spatiotemporal wavefront sensor (STWFS)
• A Survey of Spatio-Temporal Couplings throughout High-Power Ultrashort Lasers
• Visible optical vortices measured with bulk lateral shearing interferometry