High complexity femtosecond pulse duplicator

This paper presents a theoretical and numerical study of a 0-π fan-out phase grating placed in the Fourier plane of a spatio-spectral pulse shaper followed by a spherical focusing lens. It is shown that this device acts as a high complexity femtosecond pulse duplicator designed for two source interferometry. At the focus of the lens, the electric field displays two spatially separated intense spots in which relative delay can be continuously tuned over 4 orders of magnitude, typically from a few attoseconds to a few tens of femtoseconds. Because the two pulses do not spatially overlap, their intensity remains unchanged when the relative delay is smaller than the pulse duration. Detailed simulations of the shaped electric field are presented.