Abstract
This letter demonstrates the use of time-resolved optical-gating based on dispersive propagation to characterize a semiconductor mode-locked laser emitting picosecond pulses at a wavelength of 1.5 /spl mu/m. DP-TROG is a new noninterferometric method for characterizing ultra-short optical pulses in amplitude and phase without the need for a short optical gating pulse. We describe and give recommendations for the reconstruction of the pulse properties from the set of measured autocorrelation traces and the intensity spectrum.