| The main contributions of this thesis to the field of ultrashort pulse measurement are a new set of experimental tools to measure the spatio-temporal fields of femtosecond pulses, and a new simplified formalism to describe such fields in the presence of distortions.; More specifically, we developed an experimental technique based on scanningwavelength digital holography and frequency-resolved optical gating that allows the complete measurement of the electric field E(x,y,t) of trains of identical femtosecond pulses. A related method, wavelength-multiplexed digital holography, is also introduced. It achieves a single-shot measurement of the three-dimensional field E(x,y,t)---but at a reduced resolution---using a simple experimental apparatus. Both methods can be used to measure various spatio-temporal distortions that often plague femtosecond laser systems, in particular amplified ones.; Finally, to unambiguously and intuitively quantify such distortions, we introduce normalized correlation coefficients so that a common language can be used to describe the severity of these effects. |
