Direct in-situ single-shot measurements of the absolute carrier-envelope phases of ultrashort pulses.

ABSTRACT

Many important physical processes such as nonlinear optics and coherent control are highly sensitive to the absolute carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of driving ultrashort laser pulses. This makes the measurement of CEP immensely important in relevant fields. Even though relative CEPs can be measured with a few existing technologies, the estimate of the absolute CEP is not straightforward and always requires theoretical inputs. Here, we demonstrate a novel in-situ technique based on angular streaking that can achieve such a goal without complicated calibration procedures. Single-shot measurements of the absolute CEP have been achieved with an estimated precision of 0.19 radians.