Spectrum shuttle for producing spatially shapable GHz burst pulses

Abstract

Spatiotemporal shaping of ultrashort pulses is pivotal for various technologies, such as burst laser ablation and ultrafast imaging. However, the difficulty of pulse stretching to subnanosecond intervals and independent control of the spatial profile for each pulse limit their advancement. We present a pulse manipulation technique for producing spectrally separated GHz burst pulses from a single ultrashort pulse, where each pulse is spatially shapable. We demonstrated the production of pulse trains at intervals of 0.1 to 3 ns in the 800- and 400-nm wavelength bands and applied them to ultrafast single-shot transmission spectroscopic imaging (4 Gfps) of laser ablation dynamics with two-color sequentially timed all-optical mapping photography. Furthermore, we demonstrated the production of pulse trains containing a shifted or dual-peak pulse as examples of individual spatial shaping of GHz burst pulses. Our proposed technique brings unprecedented spatiotemporal manipulation of GHz burst pulses, which can be useful for a wide range of laser applications.