Spatiotemporal noise characterization for chirped-pulse amplification systems.

Optical noise, the core of the pulse-contrast challenge for ultra-high peak power femtosecond lasers, exhibits spatiotemporal (ST) coupling induced by angular dispersion. Full characterization of such ST noise requires two-dimensional measurements in the ST domain. Thus far, all noise measurements have been made only in the temporal domain. Here we report the experimental characterization of the ST noise, which is made feasible by extending cross-correlation from the temporal domain to the ST domain. We experimentally demonstrate that the ST noise originates from the optical surface imperfections in the pulse stretcher/compressor and exhibits a linear ST coupling in the far-field plane. The contrast on the far-field axis, underestimated in the conventional measurements, is further improved by avoiding the far-field optics in the stretcher. These results enhance our understanding of the pulse contrast with respect to its ST-coupling nature and pave the way toward the design of high-contrast ultra-high peak power lasers.