Bulk Lateral Shearing Interferometry Applied to Spatiotemporal Pulses in the Visible and Near-Infrared

This study explores the generation and characterization of ultrashort optical vortices in the near-infrared (NIR) and visible (VIS) spectral ranges using a Ti:sapphire laser source. Optical vortices, characterized by their orbital angular momentum (OAM), were produced using structured waveplates and manipulated to create NIR vortices with various OAMs as described in [1]. These were then upconverted to the visible spectrum through second-harmonic generation (SHG). To measure said beams, a spatiotemporal characterization technique is needed [2]. In previous work, the technique STARFISH [3] was used to measure NIR vortices [1]. However, this characterization was affected by noise in the wavefront and cannot be adapted to other spectral ranges without significant changes.