Method of synchronization measurement via spatial–spectral interference in coherent combination of multi-channel ultra-short pulses

Spatial-spectral interference fringes contain information on the time delay between pulses. By extracting the slope of the equiphase line in the spatial-spectral interference fringes, a large range and high-precision detection of the time delay is realized. Theoretical analysis is given. An experiment demonstrates the fundamental process for obtaining the time delay between two femtosecond pulses. In the current experiment the measurement range is from 0.4 fs to hundreds of fs. This method was first proposed for synchronization measurement of coherent combination of ultra-short pulses in a multi-channel system. The method can be applied at large scales in an ultra-short pulse laser facility.