Measuring spatial chirp in ultrashort pulses using single-shot Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating

We show that the spatio-temporal distortion, spatial chirp, is naturally and easily measured by single-shot versions of second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating (SHG FROG) (including the extremely simple version, GRENOUILLE)'. While SHG FROG traces are ordinarily symmetrical, a pulse with spatial chirp yields a trace with a shear that is approximately twice the pulse spatial chirp. As a result, the trace shear unambiguously reveals both the magnitude and sign of the pulse spatial chirp. The effects of spatial chirp can then be removed from the trace and the intensity and phase vs. time also retrieved, yielding a full description of the spatially chirped pulse in space and time. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.