Optical sampling by laser cavity tuning

Abstract

Most time-resolved optical experiments rely either on external mechanical delay lines or on two synchronized femtosecond lasers to achieve a defined temporal delay between two optical pulses. Here, we present a new method which does not require any external delay lines and uses only a single femtosecond laser. It is based on the cross-correlation of an optical pulse with a subsequent pulse from the same laser. Temporal delay between these two pulses is achieved by varying the repetition rate of the laser. We validate the new scheme by a comparison with a cross-correlation measurement carried out with a conventional mechanical delay line.

Low repetition rate SESAM modelocked VECSEL using an extendable active multipass-cavity approach

“…Ultrafast VECSELs with repetition frequencies as high as 50 GHz in the fundamentally modelocked [17] regime, and even 175 GHz in harmonically modelocked operation [18] were demonstrated. Furthermore, VECSELs support widely tunable repetition rates in the GHz-regime for applications such as optical sampling by laser cavity tuning (OSCAT) [19] in the femtosecond modelocking regime [20,21].…”

All fiber THz spectrometer for plastics industry

“…Moreover, it is preferable to choose possibly high repetition rate sources, where a small change in the oscillator length results in a significant repetitions rate shift ∆f . For an extensive discussion about the OSCAT technique and its limitations, please refer to [7,8].…”

“…The authors have recently presented an "Optical Sampling by Cavity Tuning" (OSCAT) measurement scheme for time resolved experiments in general [7,8] and specifically OSCAT based THz spectrometer [9]. In this novel technique there is no need for an external moveable delay line, instead the temporal offset between the pulses in the pump and probe beam can be controlled by the repetition rate of the pulsed laser source.…”

Two-colour high-speed asynchronous optical sampling based on offset-stabilized Yb:KYW and Ti:sapphire oscillators

“…In recent experiments, asynchronous optical sampling was applied to study ultrafast dynamics in a variety of structured materials [5][6][7][8][9]. In addition to that, several ASOPS-variants have been demonstrated [10][11][12][13].…”