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Title: Single-shot optical recording with sub-picosecond resolution spans record nanosecond lengths

Journal Article · · Laser Focus World
OSTI ID:1438603
 [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

With the advent of electronics, oscilloscopes and photodiodes are now routinely capable of measuring events well below nanosecond resolution. However, these electronic instruments do not currently measure events below 10 ps resolution. From Walden’s observation that there is an engineering tradeoff between electronic bit depth and temporal resolution in analog-to-digital converters, this technique is projected to have extremely poor fidelity if it is extended to record single events with picosecond resolution. While this constraint may be circumvented with extensive signal averaging or other multiple measurements approaches, rare events and nonrepetitive events cannot be observed with this technique. Techniques capable of measuring information in a single shot are often required. There is a general lack of available technologies that are easily scalable to long records with sub-picosecond resolution, and are simultaneously versatile in wavelength of operation. Since it is difficult to scale electronic methods to shorter resolutions, we instead aim to scale optical methods to longer records. Demonstrated optical recording methods that have achieved 1 ps resolution and long recording lengths rely on either time scaling to slow down the temporal information or, like Wien, perform time-to-space mapping so that fast events may be captured with a conventional camera.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1438603
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-742137-
Journal Information:
Laser Focus World, Vol. 54, Issue 01; ISSN 1043-8092
Publisher:
PennwellCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English