Measuring the Pulse Duration and the Time-Dependent Polarisation State of Ultrashort Laser Pulses with the D-Scan Technique

Abstract: Ultrashort laser pulses with time-dependent polarisation states have many applications, such as the generation of isolated attosecond pulses and the study of the optical chirality of molecules. In this project the polarisation gate, built from two quarter-wave plates of different orders, is thoroughly characterised in experiment and simulation. The time-dependent polarisation state is investigated with the dispersion scan technique (d-scan). We demonstrate that it is sufficient to measure three different projections of the electric field with the d-scan in order to achieve its complete reconstruction.