Directly measuring the spatio-temporal electric field of focusing ultrashort pulses

We present the first technique for directly measuring (without assumptions) the spatio-temporal intensity and phase of a train of ultrashort pulses at and near a focus. Our method uses an experimentally simple and high-spectral resolution variant of spectral interferometry (SEA TADPOLE). To illustrate our technique, we measured the spatio-temporal electric field in and around the foci of several different types of lenses. To confirm our results, we also simulated these measurements by numerically propagating a pulse through each of the lenses used. From one set of measurements, we made a movie showing a focusing pulse with severe chromatic aberration. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.