High Power Laser Science and Engineering, Volume. , Issue , ()
Spatiotemporal characterization of pulse pedestals by imaging 2D Self-Referenced Spectral Interferometry [Early Posting]
The temporal contrast requirements for high-power laser pulses have become increasingly stringent with rising irradiance levels. Over the past decade, in addition to discrete pre-pulses, spatiotemporal pulse pedestals have attracted significant attention as a major limiting factor for contrast quality in chirped-pulse amplification systems, primarily caused by imperfections in their stretching and compression optics. In this work, we present the first direct measurement of these contributions in the spatiotemporal domain using an imaging spectrometer in combination with a two-dimensional self- referenced spectral interferometer.