Abstract
We present experimental results of a study of the propagation of 80-fsec light pulses in crystalline quartz in both the time domain and the frequency domain. In the case of linear birefringence the incoming pulse is split into two perpendicularly polarized pulses. The observed time delay is in excellent agreement with a group-delay calculation. When the two pulses are set to have parallel polarizations, the frequency response has a channeled structure that can be related to the coherence effects commonly observed in pump-probe experiments. In the case of optical activity the splitting of the pulse gives rise to two orthogonally circularly polarized pulses. It has been possible, by using a differential technique, to observe directly the difference in group-velocity dispersion for the two circular polarizations that is characteristic of the optical activity. It is suggested that this differential technique could be used to diagnose pulse-shape asymmetry.
© 1989 Optical Society of America
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