Patent ID: 9335221
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: G01J

Claim Text:
1. Device for processing an optical pulse to measure the temporal contrast of this pulse, the optical pulse comprising a pedestal and a main peak on the pedestal, the device comprising: an optical division device, comprising an input channel that receives the optical pulse, and first and second output channels to provide the main peak and at least part of the pedestal respectively, the part that is used to measure the temporal contrast, a temporal shift device to create a temporal shift between the main peak and the part of the pedestal, an attenuation device to attenuate the main peak such that the corresponding levels of the main peak and the part of the pedestal are of the same order of magnitude, and an optical multiplexing device to multiplex the main peak thus attenuated and the part of the pedestal temporally shifted relative to the main peak, the contrast then being equal to the ratio of the measurement of the level of the main peak to the measurement of the level of the part of the pedestal, the levels of the main peak and the part of the pedestal being corrected by the attenuations applied to them in the processing device.