Frontiers in Physics (Apr 2021)

Automated Close-Loop System for Three-Dimensional Characterization of Spatiotemporal Optical Vortex

  • Jian Chen,
  • Keyin Lu,
  • Qian Cao,
  • Chenhao Wan,
  • Chenhao Wan,
  • Haifeng Hu,
  • Qiwen Zhan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2021.633922
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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Recent rapid advances in spatiotemporal optical pulses demand accurate characterization of the spatiotemporal structure of the produced light fields. We report an automated close-loop characterization system that is capable of reconstructing the three-dimensional intensity and phase structures of spatiotemporal wavepacket illustrated by characterizing spatiotemporal optical vortex in the spatiotemporal domain. The characterization technique is based on interfering a much shorter probe pulse with different slices of the object wavepacket along the temporal axis. A close-loop control program is developed to realize full automation of the data collection and reconstruction process. Experimental results of the intensity and phase distributions show that the designed close-loop system is efficient in quantitatively characterizing the generated spatiotemporal optical vortex. Such a linear characterization system can also be extended to measure many other kinds of spatiotemporal wavepacket and may find broad applications in spatiotemporal wavepacket studies.

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