Differential Electronic Gating: A Method To Measure The Shape Of Short Thz Pulses With A Poorly Defined Trigger Signal

A simple experimental method has been developed to determine the shape of repetitive picosecond THz pulses in the presence of a large jitter in the trigger signal. This method, a modification of the recently reported differential optical gating method, is based on the femtosecond electronic gating of a high-frequency sequential oscilloscope. As a test, the shape of THz pulses from the free-electron laser has been measured. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03738-4].