Characterization of a broadband interferometric autocorrelator for visible light with ultrashort blue laser pulses

We present a compact interferometric autocorrelator that allows the characterization of ultrashort laser pulses in the visible light domain (370–740 nm). The presented device uses a GaN photodiode with corresponding two-photon absorption. Different GaN and AlGaN photodiodes were characterized for this purpose. Despite AlGaN diodes have a better matched bandgap for this application, we have found that only the GaN diodes show sufficient nonlinear behavior. Using the autocorrelator we were able to characterize ultrashort frequency doubled Ti:Sapphire laser pulses with a pulse duration down to 18 fs in the second harmonic having just a few hundred nanojoules of pulse energy. The broadband behavior and extension towards the UV along with the need for only low energetic pulses are the novelties of this device.