Single shot measurement of the electric field of optical waveforms by use of time magnification and heterodyning

The concept of the time-stretch technique, where temporal variations of a signal under test are temporally magnified using time- to-frequency mapping onto the optical frequencies of a stretched short optical pulse, is adapted to the single-shot characterization of optical waveforms. The optical source under test is heterodyned with an out-of-band monochromatic source, and the temporal intensity of the combined sources is temporally magnified with a time-stretch setup. The electric field of the source under test in a finite time window is directly reconstructed in a single shot. Experimental demonstrations are performed on various signals.