Method and Apparatus for Analyzing a Beam Using Characterization of an Ultrafast Reference Laser

An optical apparatus for characterizing ultrafast pulses comprising:

• a first entrance port that receives one or more reference pulses;
• a beam splitter positioned to receive the one or more reference pulses from the first entrance port, the beam splitter splitting each reference pulse into at least two copies;
• a self-referencing characterization system positioned to receive one or more reference pulse copies from the beam splitter, the self-referencing characterization system configured to optically process the one or more reference pulse copies to generate a reference interaction signal characteristic of the one or more reference pulses, the self-referencing characterization system providing the reference interaction signal to a reference detector that converts the reference interaction signal to an electrical reference interaction signal;
• a second entrance port that receives one or more unknown pulses;
• a spectrally resolved cross-correlation characterization system positioned to receive one or more reference pulse copies from the beam splitter and to receive one or more unknown pulses provided through the second entrance port, the spectrally resolved cross-correlation characterization system comprising a nonlinear medium, the spectrally resolved cross-correlation characterization system optically processing the one or more reference pulse copies and the one or more unknown pulses to cause the one or more reference pulse copies and the one or more unknown pulses to interact within the nonlinear medium to produce a cross-correlation interaction signal, and the spectrally resolved cross-correlation characterization system directing the cross-correlation interaction signal to an interaction detector that converts the interaction signal to an electrical cross-correlation interaction signal.