Description of an electronic controller used with an autocorrelator to measure a femtosecond pulse duration in real time

Abstract

An electronic circuit controller is described which is used with an autocorrelator and an oscilloscope to measure the duration of femtosecond laser pulses in real time. The controller drives both the autocorrelator and the oscilloscope to produce a linear trace display of a pulse autocorrelation function on an oscilloscope. The apparatus has been found very useful for monitoring, aligning, and characterizing the output from cw mode‐locked dye lasers.