Patent ID: 8355137

Claim:
An interferometer system for measuring optical properties of a sample, the interferometer system characterised by: (a) a light source apparatus operable to emit at least one shaped laser pulse toward a beam splitting apparatus; (b) the beam splitting apparatus operable to (i) mix the at least one shaped laser pulses so as to define a mixed beam; and (ii) separate the mixed beam so as to define two resulting beams, a first resulting beam directed to a reference arm and a second resulting beam directed to a sample arm, the sample being associated with the sample arm; (c) a combining apparatus operable to receive the two resulting beams after the two resulting beams exit the reference arm and the sample arm, the combining apparatus combining, using a means of optical nonlinear mixing, the two resulting beams into a product beam, the combining apparatus further directing the product beam towards a detection point; and (d) a detector operable to record at the detection point an interference pattern for defining the optical properties, the interference pattern corresponding to the product beam.