Electro-optic/magneto-optic measurement of electromagnetic radiation using chirped optical pulse

摘要

Characterization of free-space electromagnetic energy pulses (15) using a chirped optical probe beam is provided. An electro-optic or magneto-optic crystal (14) is positioned such that the free-space radiation and chirped optical probe signal co-propagate, preferably in a co-linear common direction, through the crystal where a temporal waveform of the free-space radiation is linearly encoded onto a wavelength spectrum of the chirped optical probe signal. The temporal waveform of the free-space radiation is then reconstructed using, for example, a dynamic subtraction of the spectral distribution of the chirped optical probe signal without modulation from the spectral distribution of the chirped optical probe signal with modulation by the free-space radiation.