Fully symmetric dispersionless stable transmission-grating Michelson interferometer

Abstract

Michelson interferometers have been routinely used in various applications ranging from testing optical components to interferometric time-resolved spectroscopy measurements. Traditionally, plate beamsplitters are employed to redistribute radiation between the two arms of an interferometer. However, such an interferometer is susceptible to relative phase fluctuations between the two arms resulting from vibrations of the beamsplitter. This drawback is circumvented in diffraction-grating-based interferometers, which are especially beneficial in applications where highly stable delays between the replica beams are required. In the vast majority of grating-based interferometers, reflective diffraction gratings are used as beamsplitters. Their diffraction efficiency, however, is strongly wavelength dependent. Therefore transmission-grating interferometers can be advantageous for spectroscopy methods, since they can provide high diffraction efficiency over a wide spectral range. Here, we present and characterize a transmission grating-based Michelson interferometer, which is practically dispersion-free, has intrinsically high symmetry and stability and moderate throughput efficiency, and is promising for a wide range of applications.

Neural-network-powered pulse reconstruction from one-dimensional interferometric cross-correlation traces

“…In the case of SNR = 20, the L 2 -norm over the training, development and test data-sets was achieved to be as low as 8.9 data. The data was acquired with a table-top spectrometer (Avantes) and the recently-reported fully-symmetric Michelson interferometer [28]. The measured data was used to form the neural-network input data-sample and is shown in Figures 4a-c.…”

“…This supplemental data serves as the set of additional constraints to the 1D pulse retrieval problem. We synthesize a large data-set to train our neural network, and apply the trained model to the experimental data obtained using the dispersionless Michelson interferometer described previously [28]. We demonstrate that it is possible to unambiguously retrieve electric fields of ultrashort pulses from the four mentioned 1D data-sets.…”

Attosecond stable dispersion-free delay line for easy ultrafast metrology

“…Careful fabrication of dispersion balanced beam splitter has been shown to enable the measurement of short fs-pulses 10,11 . Grating-based beam splitters have also been employed in delay lines, however, with compromised energy throughput and limited operating wavelengths 12,13 . Quasi-dispersion-free transmission grating and ultrathin delay lines minimize dispersion effects on pulses and achieve attosecond stability over tens of fs delay range [14][15][16] .…”

Attosecond stable dispersion-free delay line for easy ultrafast metrology

“…Careful fabrication of dispersion balanced beam splitter has been shown to enable the measurement of short fs-pulses 10 , 11 . Grating-based beam splitters have also been employed in delay lines, however, with compromised energy throughput and limited operating wavelengths 12 , 13 . Quasi-dispersion-free transmission grating and ultrathin delay lines minimize dispersion effects on pulses and achieve attosecond stability over tens of fs delay range 14 – 16 .…”