Nonstationary optics: tutorial

Abstract

Over the past several decades, nonstationary optics has risen as a key enabling technology for a multitude of novel applications. These include areas of research such as micromachining and ultrafast optics, as well as the Nobel awarded research in femtochemistry, optical frequency combs, and attosecond physics. This tutorial aims to present some of the main concepts required to analyze nonstationary fields, with an emphasis on pulsed beams. The work begins from the fundamental building blocks of such fields, and builds up to some of their main properties. The spatiotemporal properties and stability of such fields are discussed in length, and some common measurement schemes are reviewed.