Spatiotemporal characterization of pulse pedestals by imaging two-dimensional self-referenced spectral interferometry

Abstract The temporal contrast requirements for high-power laser pulses have become increasingly stringent with rising irradiance levels. Over the past decade, in addition to discrete pre-pulses, spatiotemporal pulse pedestals have attracted significant attention as a major limiting factor for contrast quality in chirped-pulse amplification systems, primarily caused by imperfections in their stretching and compression optics. In this work, we present the first direct high-resolution single-shot measurement of these contributions in the spatiotemporal domain using an imaging spectrometer in combination with a two-dimensional self-referenced spectral interferometer.