Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 199, 77-87 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2011-01504-2

Regular Article

Spatio-temporal characterization of self-formed hollow light pulses in the pump depletion regime of second harmonic generation

¹ Department of Quantum Electronics, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Ave. 9, bldg. 3, LT10222 Vilnius, Lithuania
² CNISM and Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, Milano 20133, Italy

^a e-mail: ottavia.jedrkiewicz@uninsubria.it

Received: 29 August 2011
Revised: 4 October 2011
Published online: 7 December 2011

Abstract

Depletion of the pump pulse in second harmonic generation (SHG) and its back-regeneration from the second harmonic pulse is a well known process in nonlinear optics. Nevertheless how the pump pulse reshapes as a three-dimensional object in space and time has never been investigated. In this work we apply a three-dimensional mapping technique to record this transformation and we experimentally show the formation of a hollow as well as more complex layered spatio-temporal structures of the fundamental pump pulse in different regimes. The results are compared with numerical simulations.