Spatiotemporal pulse shaping using resonant diffraction gratings.

We propose a new theoretical model describing spatiotemporal transformations of two-dimensional optical pulses by resonant diffraction gratings. The diffraction of the pulse is described in terms of a linear system. Simple analytical approximations for the transfer function and the impulse response of the system are derived. The derived approximations contain five independent parameters, which can be estimated using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis. The presented numerical simulation results demonstrate that the resonant grating can perform complex pulse transformations, such as the simultaneous spatial and temporal differentiation of the optical pulse envelope.