Group delay and spectral phase retrieval of light pulses by spectral intensity measurements

Abstract

We discuss a method to determine both the group delay and the phase of a given pulse in the Fourier optics domain. The proposal is based on the measurement of two intensity spectra, before and after a known quadratic phase modulation. A simple analytical equation is then used to determine the group delay in one step. If necessary, the spectral phase can be determined by simple spectral integration of the determined group delay. The proposal is supported by various numerical results and an experimental measurement to prove the concept.