Time resolved imaging using non-collinear parametric down-conversion

In this thesis I present a method for measuring the time resolved spatial profile of a single laser pulse and its application to the semiconductor devices. In OMEGA laser system, spatial profile of a laser beam can change as a function of time due to spontaneous effects such as the B-integral or imposed effects such as smoothing by spectral dispersion. The method presented here uses a non-collinear parametric down-conversion process to multiply sample a single laser pulse. In the non-collinear parametric down-conversion process, an infrared laser beam at 1064 nm is mixed with an intense ultraviolet beam at 351 nm to generate the green signal beam at 524 nm. Calculations have been carried out to determine the threshold power of the infrared probe beam for generating a detectable signal beam. The generated green beam is captured by a cooled optical multichannel analyzer camera and the image of signal beam is analyzed. This temporal spatial measurement can also be applied to the dynamic image detection schemes of semiconductor devices.