A real-time acquisition system for pump–probe spectroscopy

An innovative acquisition system for time-resolved spectroscopy is presented. It is based on the real-time acquisition of the expermental signal during the rapid scan of an optical delay line and enables data acquisition With high absolute time resolution (1 femtosecond), high scanning velocity (2.5 cm/s) and long time delay (several nanoseconds). We report precise interferometric tests of the acquisition system, focusing on technical features of the optical delay line. We check this data acquisition technique by performing ultra-fast time-resolved experiments with laser sources of high an low repetition rates.