Ultrafast time reversal mirror at 800 nm based on photosensitive naphthalocyanine doped solids

Usual techniques for producing high-energy ultrashort pulses use the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) scheme, in which a combination of gratings and reflective optics to realize the stretching, amplification and compression stages are employed. This chapter presents a different approach based on the use of persistent spectral hole burning (PSHB) materials, which can be programmed to combine the roles usually played by the dispersive components and the modulator arrays. A PSHB material is nonpixelated and potentially offers a larger number of addressable points. The shaping process includes two steps: first, engraving a coherent spectral filter with an accumulated storage interferometric procedure, followed with the use of this filter to shape a probe pulse. Modifying the phase of an ultra short laser pulse or correcting a phase change implies that one is able to measure this phase. The spectral interferometry (SI) technique that perfectly suits ultra-short pulses is expected to be the ideal tool: A reference pulse is sent through the device, and the output pulse and a portion of the incident reference pulse are made to frequency beat on the entrance slit of a spectrometer. The resulting spectrogram provides the required information. The chapter adapts the SI technique for measuring the amplitude and phase of photon echo signals produced by diffraction of femtosecond pulses on a spectral hologram, therefore, demonstrating the pulse shaping and time reversal potentialities of our naphthalocyanine based photosensitive material.