Spatially periodic structures, under femtosecond pulsed excitation of crystals

Measuring the luminescence intensity of specially prepared irradiation defects induced in crystals, we observe that the longitudinal structure of quasi-interferences induced by two orthogonally polarized femtosecond pulses propagating together with different velocities is insensitive to the spatial broadening due to velocity dispersion in the crystals. On the contrary, it does depend on the pulse duration when it is changed by varying the spectral width of the radiation. It thus allows a direct measurement of the coherence time of such pulses. Stability of the axial selectivity is a good sign, taking away a number of serious limitations concerning possible applications