Implementation of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction with a simultaneously recorded reference interferogram

An improvement of the technique of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction is presented. The possibility of simultaneously recording two interference spectra, one containing complete information on the spectral amplitude and the other containing complete information on the spectral phase, on a single one-dimensional detector is demonstrated. This is, to the author's knowledge, the only method that permits the complete characterization of an ultrashort light pulse with a single one-dimensional integrating detector and an algebraic inversion procedure. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 320.7100, 320.7160, 120.3180.