Optical Software-Assisted Design and simulation of Spatio-Temporal Profiles of ultrashort laser pulses

Ultrashort laser pulses are widespread in scientific and industrial areas and have a large number of application fields : laser materials processing, surgery, nonlinear microscopy are few examples. However, for these applications where the optical path can be very complex, the spatio-temporal profiles can be strongly affected by the optics. This highly impacts on the effective pulse duration, the group velocity, and, as a consequence, on the efficiency of the targeted nonlinear mechanisms. Simulating the spatio-temporal profiles for any arbitrary optical system is at present a challenge. Here, we demonstrate that using a combination of ray tracing software and a scalar wave description of the laser pulse, one can model the spatio-temporal shape of femtosecond laser pulses after a pulse shaping and complex optical setup. Our numerical results have been assessed using analytical results and compared to literature.