Abstract

It is well appreciated that by studying the phase and the amplitude of coherent ultrashort signals that are transmitted, reflected or emitted from materials during linear and nonlinear optical experiments that one can obtain valuable information about the optical interactions and the fundamental processes in those material systems. Many of these signals (e.g., those from four wave mixing experiments) are very weak and require very sensitive measurement techniques. Recently, in partial response to this need, a method of completely measuring the intensity and phase of an almost arbitrarily weak coherent signal has been demonstrated¹ by combining Spectral Interferometry and Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG). (The latter technique was given the acronym TADPOLE for Temporal Analysis by Dispersing a Pair of Light E-fields by the authors.) To date, however, these (and similar) techniques have been scalar in nature. That is, they have allowed the complete temporal characterization of only a single polarization component.

© 1996 Optical Society of America