Interferometric measurement of femtosecond optical pulses emitted from a fibre probe

An interferometric technique is applied to a temporal analysis of the far-field radiation from a near-field optical fibre probe. A balanced homodyne scheme combined with lock-in detection at dual harmonics allows one to evaluate the temporal form of weak signal pulses, even in the presence of some environmental vibrations that disturb the optical interference. The transmission properties of a small aperture are formulated theoretically. It is shown that the sub-wavelength aperture should not distort the femtosecond optical pulses temporally, which is consistent with the experimental observation.