Upconversion time microscope demonstrating 103× magnification of femtosecond waveforms

Abstract

We present the operational principles and results of a temporal imaging system, configured as a time microscope, that achieves 103 x magnification of waveforms with 300-fs resolution and a 5.7-ps field of view. The quadratic-phase time-lens element is realized by upconversion of the dispersed input waveform with a linearly chirped 5-THz bandwidth pump. The system allows expansion of ultrafast optical waveforms to a time scale that is directly accessible with slower conventional technology, in real time, on a single-shot basis.

Single-shot observation of optical rogue waves in integrable turbulence using time microscopy

“…In this article, we present direct single-shot recordings of optical RWs by using a specially designed time microscope (TM) ultrafast acquisition system [49][50][51] . The temporal resolution of B250 fs of our TM (see Methods and Supplementary Note 1) allows us to investigate the fast dynamics underlying integrable turbulence arising in optical fibres.…”

Time-dependent spectrum of a single photon and its positive-operator-valued measure

“…For the special choice β = 1/α the combined transformation applied to the photon is actually the Fourier transform, transforming time to frequency (the mathematics involved is exactly analogous to that describing spatial light propagation through a cylindrical lens, hence the name: "time lens"). The time resolution thus obtainable extends down to hundreds of femtoseconds [20,22].…”

Large-alphabet time-frequency entangled quantum key distribution by means of time-to-frequency conversion

“…As mentioned previously, the large timing jitter ( 200 ps for APDs) of efficient photon-counting detectors makes it challenging to resolve the temporal correlations directly. Instead, we propose to implement measurements in the time basis by sending each photon through a time-to-frequency converter [47,48,49]. As shown in Fig.…”