Practical issues in ultra-short-pulse measurements with ‘GRENOUILLE’

We examine the characteristics and limitations of GRENOUILLE, a simple and compact implementation of the second-harmonic-generation (SHG) frequency-resolved-optical-gating (FROG) technique. We show that it can be made to operate effectively over a relatively wide range of pulse lengths and wavelengths. We also describe procedures for its design and calibration, and we discuss the use of arbitrary nonlinear SHG crystals.