Geometric-optical reconstruction of a wavefront experimental realization with femtosecond laser pulses

• Published in: Optics communications Vol. 150; no. 1; pp. 38 - 42
• Main Authors: Dement'ev, D.A, Ivanov, A.L, Serov, O.B, Stepanov, A.G, Matveets, Yu.A, Chekalin, S.V, Smolovich, A.M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.05.1998
• ISSN: 0030-4018; 1873-0310
• DOI: 10.1016/S0030-4018(98)00090-X

The mechanism of wavefront reconstruction by geometric-optical reflection of reconstruction radiation from surfaces with constant phase differences between the object and reference waves has been investigated. The main difference between this mechanism and a holographic one is the absence of diffraction of the reconstructing radiation by the periodic structure and as a consequence the achromatism of the reconstruction process. Incoherent continuous radiation and ultrashort laser pulses were used in the experiments. The effect of achromatic reconstruction has been obtained after recording the interference of counterpropagating 30–40 fs pulses from an Al 2O 3:Ti 3+ laser in bulk media.