Single Shot Spectral Interferometry of Femtosecond Laser-Produced Plasmas
Abstract
We use both a Fourier transform based analysis and time-retrieval calculations to get time-resolved measurements of the reflectivity and the phase shift of a chirped probe pulse interacting with a fs-laser-produced plasma by spectral interferometry in a single shot. We have devised a novel dual-quadrature Mach-Zehnder configuration in which wavefront division is used to obtain spatial fringes from the reference and the signal simultaneously. We demonstrate the capability of this technique with fully analyzed experimental data on the interaction of a fs laser with C3H6 and SiO2 samples, showing 35 fs time resolution. We study the effects of the temporal profile (ASE, phase defects, pedestals…) of the main pulse on the quality of the laser-solid interaction through early optical breakdown observations.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000APS..DPPYP1015G