Spectro-temporal imaging of optical pulses with a single time lens

Spectro-temporal imaging (time-to-frequency conversion) constitutes a simple and direct (single-shot) technique for the high-resolution measurement of fast optical temporal waveforms. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that spectro-temporal imaging of an optical pulse can be achieved with a single time lens (quadratic phase modulator) operating under the appropriate conditions. As compared with the conventional solution, our proposal avoids the use of an input dispersive device preceding the time lens, thus, representing a much simpler and more practical alternative for implementing spectro-temporal imaging.