Single-shot spatiotemporal characterization of a multi-PW laser using a multispectral wavefront sensing method

The single-shot spatiotemporal characterization of an ultrahigh intensity laser pulse was performed using a multispectral wavefront sensor. For the measurement of the spatio-spectral electric field, a femtosecond laser pulse was spectrally modulated and separated by a Fabry-Perot etalon coupled with a grating pair, and its spatio-spectral electric field was measured with a wavefront sensor. The spatiotemporal electric field was reconstructed from the measured spatiospectral electric field of a multi-PW laser pulse. We tbund that the spatiotemporal distortion could reduce the focused laser intensity by 15%, compared to the case of a diffraction-limited and transtbrm-limited laser pulse. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement