Harsh Shah

Guiding Professor and University

Dipanshu Bansal, Vibrational Spectroscopy Lab, IIT Bombay

Project Title

Development of a femtosecond pulse measurement system

Field

Laser Optics

Credited or Non-Credit

Started as non-credited; BTP component was credited

How did you reach out to the prof?

I applied to the project through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program 2022, conducted by EnPoWER. The professor invited all applicants to his lab to provide an overview of the project, outline expectations, and allow the students to decide whether they wanted to continue with the project or not.

How did you prepare for your first meeting with the prof? What previous knowledge was required?

I reviewed the project document and the introductory video shared by the professor, which provided sufficient background. No prior knowledge was required; the only prerequisites were interest and commitment.

What was the research topic? How did you arrive at it? (did the prof give it/did you explore & find it yourself)

The research project (topic given by professor) focused on designing and building an autocorrelator using the Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) technique, a method in ultrafast optics for characterizing femtosecond laser pulses. The goal was to measure critical pulse parameters such as pulse width, temporal intensity profile, and phase information with high accuracy. Unlike conventional autocorrelation, which provides only limited temporal information, the FROG system enables a complete reconstruction of both the intensity and phase of ultrashort pulses.

What was the duration of the project?

The project began in July 2022, and the first phase concluded in May 2024 (~2 years) with the successful development of the autocorrelator. An extension of the work continued as a BTP-I from August 2024 to January 2025.

What was the work done by you as part of the project? Who were the other stakeholders involved?

There were two other friends (Ojas Jain and Atharv Hardikar) from our department also with me on the project. We use to take help of the PhD students in the lab and report to the professor. The first component involved literature review and understanding the theory required which was the most difficult and slowest part. We use to spend good time studying stuff listing our doubts and repeatedly visiting the professor to understand concepts. Next we underwent lab saftey training (since we worked in a clean room) and started working on basic hands-on projects to get an idea of the equipment. Finally once we got used to the optical components, we designed some parts on CAD and got it manufactured while ordered most parts from the US and started iterating the design. Once we had our system dimens