Interferometric FROG for characterization of few-cycle laser pulses

A novel approach for characterizing ultrashort laser pulses is presented in this paper. The method is based on interferometric autocorrelation (IAC), which has long been the standard technique for the measurement of few-cycle pulses. In contrast to noncollinear autocorrelation techniques it does not exhibit geometrical blurring, but, as all simple autocorrelation approaches, lacks the ability to reconstruct the exact pulse shape and phase. Extension of this technique towards frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) appears straightforward, but has not been described for short pulses yet.