Chronocyclic tomography for measuring the amplitude and phase structure of optical pulses

We describe a new method—chronocyclic tomography—for determining the amplitude and phase structure of a short optical pulse. The technique is based on measurements of the energy spectrum of the pulse after it has passed through a time–frequency-domain imaging system. Tomographic inversion of these measured spectra yields the time–frequency Wigner distribution of the pulse, which uniquely determines the amplitude and phase structure.