Ultrafast ellipsometric pump-probe diagnostic of liquid metal surface with chirped continuum probe pulses

Investigation of Spatial Chirp Induced by Misalignments in a Parallel Grating Pair Pulse Stretcher

Spatial chirp induced by the misaligned gratings and mirrors in a parallel grating pair pulse stretcher can significantly affect the performance of the output pulses. Firstly, a detailed analysis about the spatial chirp of the stretched pulses caused by the misalignments has been carried out using the ray tracing simulation method. According to the simulation results, an adjustment procedure has been summarized to accurately calibrate these misalignments. The proposed method has been successfully applied in a home-made chirped pulse stretcher. By measuring the output pulse with an imaging spectrometer, the results show the stretched pulse has a good linear temporal chirp and little spatial chirp, which demonstrates the good adjustment of the stretcher.

Ultrafast pump-probe ellipsometry setup for the measurement of transient optical properties during laser ablation

Ultrashort pulsed lasers offer a high potential in precise and efficient material processing and deep understanding of the fundamental laser-material interaction aspects is of great importance. The transient pulse reflectivity in conjunction with the transient absorption influences decisively the laser-material interaction. Direct measurements of the absorption properties by ultrafast time-resolved ellipsometry are missing to date. In this work, a unique pump-probe ellipsometry microscope is presented allowing the determination of the transient complex refractive index with a sub-ps temporal resolution. Measurements on molybdenum show ultrafast optical penetration depth changes of -6% to + 77% already within the first 10 ps after the laser pulse impact. This indicates a significant absorption variation of the pump pulse or subsequent pulses irradiating the sample on this timescale and paves the road towards a better understanding of pulse duration dependent laser ablation efficiency, double or burst mode laser ablation and lattice modifications in the first ps after the laser pulse impact.