We describe an optical detection system for simultaneous time- and frequency-resolved measurements: the Balanced-Homodyne Chronocyclic Spectrometer (chrono equals time; cyclic equals frequency). This system uses balanced, optical homodyne detection, with a wavelength- tunable, pulsed local-oscillator (LO) field to time resolve the spectrum of weak light pulses. The LO field defines the time and frequency window in which the signal field is sampled. The method time resolves the photon statistics as well as the mean intensity. Measurement examples are given for: (1) Temporal oscillations of laser pulses transmitted through a semiconductor quantum well in an optical microcavity and (2) The time-frequency profile of a linearly chirped ultrashort laser pulse.

Date Published: 8 May 1996
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 2701, Generation, Amplification, and Measurement of Ultrashort Laser Pulses III, (8 May 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.239704

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2701:
Generation, Amplification, and Measurement of Ultrashort Laser Pulses III
William E. White; David H. Reitze, Editor(s)