Abstract

The development of femtosecond laser technology has opened access to unforeseen coherent control applications [1]. To control organic molecular dynamics, ultrashort shaped pulses in UV range are needed. Therefore, the development of a practical UV pulse shaper is a great challenge and active field within the community. Two principal active pulse-shaping techniques for ultrashort pulses are at the disposal of the experimentalist. The first one is the spatial light modulator placed in the Fourier plane of a 4f zero-dispersion line which has been extensively studied and is well known for its spatio-temporal coupling effects [2]. The second one is an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (AOPDF) which has been less well characterized [3,4]. The UV AOPDF based upon a KDP crystal is a good candidate for UV range ultrashort pulses due to its versatility and tunablity on a broad spectral range (250–410 nm). Our study concerns the first complete characterization of the space-time coupling effects produced by the AOPDF in UV range using spatially and spectrally resolved Fourier-transform interferometry (SSI) [2].

© 2011 Optical Society of America