Vectorial optical field reconstruction by attosecond spatial interferometry

Abstract

An electrical pulse E(t) is defined completely by its time-dependent amplitude and polarization direction. For optical pulses the manipulation and characterization of the light polarization state is fundamental because of its relevance in several scientific and technological fields. In this work, we demonstrate the complete temporal reconstruction of the electric field of few-cycle pulses with a complex time-dependent polarization. Our experimental approach is based on extreme ultraviolet interferometry with isolated attosecond pulses and on the demonstration that the motion of an attosecond electron wave packet is sensitive to perturbing fields only along the direction of its motion. By exploiting the sensitivity of interferometric techniques and by controlling the emission and acceleration direction of the wave packet, pulses with energies as low as a few hundreds of nanojoules can be reconstructed. Our approach reveals the possibility to characterize completely the electric field of the pulses typically used in visible pump-probe spectroscopy

Near-field imaging for single-shot waveform measurements

“…7, we show that we are able to measure a field with time-dependent polarization [26,27]. The proper quartz thickness and orientation had been previously confirmed by observing the spectral modulation caused by the two interfering pulses.…”

Α 10-gigawatt attosecond source for non-linear XUV optics and XUV-pump-XUV-probe studies

“…Already the domain of attosecond pulse characterization gave access to fascinating physics, novel methodologies and innovative technologies. Those are to be found in the Reconstruction of Attosecond Beating By Interference of two-photon Transitions (RABBIT) 3 , Frequency Resolved Optical Gating for Complete Reconstruction of Attosecond Bursts (FROG-CRAB) 4 , Phase Retrieval by Omega Oscillation Filtering (PROOF) 5,6 , Rainbow RABBIT 7 , In-situ 8 , Spectral Phase Interferometry for the Direct Electric Field Reconstruction (SPIDER) 9,10 , atto-clock 11 , double-blind holography 12 , attosecond spatial interferometry 13 , and the attosecond streaking 14 methods and in the devices developed towards their implementation. A summary of these approaches is presented in the perspective article on attosecond pulse metrology 15 .…”

Attosecond electronic recollision as field detector

“…1e of ref. [41]. We analyzed the ionization and recombination curves calculated using our model, focusing the attention on those curves leading to the highest cut-off energy.…”