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The third-order correlation width of a Gaussian pulse converts a measured ideal third-order intensity autocorrelation width to the width of its assumed Gaussian intensity profile. If the pulse intensity has temporal standard deviation ${\sigma }_I$, its squared intensity gate has deviation ${\sigma }_I/\sqrt{2}$. Their cross-correlation haswhere both $\tau$ values are intensity full widths at half maximum. The parent third-order intensity autocorrelation article derives the complete Gaussian trace by integration. The factor concerns that shape family and that correlation definition; it is not a universal pulse-width conversion.

A focused extension separates a known instrument response. Suppose an additional normalized Gaussian response of width ${\tau }_R$ convolves the ideal trace. Addition of Gaussian variances givesFor an original chosen ${\tau }_{\mathrm{measured}}=120\mathrm{fs}$ and ${\tau }_R=60\mathrm{fs}$, the inferred pulse width is $84.9\mathrm{fs}$. Applying only the ideal conversion would give $98.0\mathrm{fs}$. This Gaussian instrument broadening in third-order pulse correlation assumes that the additional response really acts as a Gaussian convolution; it is not an empirical correction for every correlator.

The historical physical implementation used second-harmonic generation followed by sum-frequency generation and spatial delay encoding.^[ref] Optical gate width, phase matching and spatial overlap belong to its response model. A finer scan step alone does not demonstrate a smaller optical response width.

If the assumed response width equals or exceeds the measured width, the displayed subtraction does not provide a resolved positive pulse width. Non-Gaussian traces, satellites and chirped fields also require explicit modeling; an intensity-width conversion does not reconstruct the optical wave phase.

A third-order intensity autocorrelation measures the delay-dependent intensity productThe name counts three intensity factors. A physical implementation can use two second-order nonlinear processes: second-harmonic generation creates a gate proportional to $I^2$, and sum-frequency generation mixes it with a delayed fundamental replica. It therefore need not use a third-order material susceptibility. The historical device spatially encoded delay in crossing beams and imaged the sum-frequency signal onto a charge-coupled device.^[ref]

An original Gaussian calculation illustrates response width. Set $I(t)=I_0{e}^{-t^2/(2{\sigma }^2)}$. Completing the square in the integral givesHence the third-order correlation width of a Gaussian pulse obeys ${\tau }_3=\sqrt{3/2}{\tau }_I$ for intensity full widths at half maximum. A $90\mathrm{fs}$ correlation width would imply ${\tau }_I\approx 73.5\mathrm{fs}$ within this ideal Gaussian model. The square-root-of-two conversion appropriate to second-order Gaussian intensity autocorrelation would be different.

For a general pulse, $A_3(\tau )$ need not equal $A_3(-\tau )$; this asymmetry can distinguish a delayed feature from an earlier one. It is still a cross-correlation with a finite-width nonlinear gate, rather than a direct reading of $I(\tau )$. The existing optical pulse temporal contrast derivation shows how a delayed weak replica also produces an opposite-delay third-order pulse correlation ghost.

Characterize phase matching, beam overlap, spatial uniformity and the temporal response before interpreting a narrow feature. Scaling the input intensity by $k$ scales this ideal signal by $k^3$, so input fluctuations also matter. The measured trace does not uniquely reconstruct an arbitrary complex optical electric field.

A third-order pulse correlation ghost is a correlation lobe generated by a real feature in the nonlinear gate, appearing at a delay where no separate input pulse need exist. It is a property of the measurement's cross-correlation, not automatically an optical prepulse or optical postpulse.

The optical pulse temporal contrast article derives the separated-replica model $I(t)=g(t)+\epsilon g(t-d)$ for $d>0$, $0<\epsilon <1$ and nonoverlapping identical-shape pulses. In third-order intensity autocorrelation, the main, positive-delay and opposite-delay lobe weights are respectivelyThe physical delayed replica enters linearly when it meets the strong squared gate; its squared contribution to the gate creates the opposite-delay ghost. Lobe separation and negligible pulse overlap are assumptions of this simple decomposition.

For an original $\epsilon =0.04$, the real postpulse has four percent of the main intensity and equal duration. Normalized to the correlation's main peak, its lobe is $0.04/1.000064\approx 0.0399974$, while the ghost is $0.0016/1.000064\approx 0.00159990$. A feature at negative delay near that latter level does not establish a physical prepulse. The ghost-to-real-lobe ratio is exactly $0.04$ in this model. This ghost-level consistency test for a delayed pulse replica can check an interpretation, although an actual prepulse could also be present.

The historical correlator's inserted-etalon test supplies a controlled physical postpulse for checking the delay orientation.^[ref] Independent changes to the replica strength, or a reference with known temporal structure, test the ghost interpretation. Overlapping pulses, unequal shapes and instrument backgrounds require a richer model.

T. J. Spencer is a coauthor of the Central Laser Facility's1999 report on a single-shot instrument for third-order intensity autocorrelation and optical pulse temporal contrast measurements.^[ref]

An original calculation illustrates a pulse-characterization issue relevant to that work. Let a Gaussian pulse have intensityCompleting the square in its third-order intensity autocorrelation givesThe pulse's intensity full width at half maximum is $2\sqrt{2\ln 2}\sigma$, while the correlation width is $2\sqrt{3\ln 2}\sigma$. Their ratio is thereforeA measured correlation width cannot simply be reported as the original pulse width. The conversion depends on the assumed pulse shape and the correlation being measured. This Gaussian example explains that distinction; it is not a reconstruction of Spencer's individual experimental tasks or a fit to the1999 data.