General ultrafast pulse measurement using the cross-correlation single-shot sonogram technique

The cross-correlation single-shot sonogram technique offers exact pulse measurement and real-time pulse monitoring via an intuitive time-frequency trace whose shape and orientation directly indicate the spectral chirp of an ultrashort laser pulse. We demonstrate an algorithm that solves a fundamental limitation of the cross-correlation sonogram method, namely, that the time-gating operation is implemented using a replica of the measured pulse rather than the ideal delta-function-like pulse. Using a modified principal-components generalized projections algorithm, we experimentally show accurate pulse retrieval of an asymmetric double pulse, a case that is prone to systematic error when one is using the original sonogram retrieval algorithm. © 2004 Optical Society of America.