When can temporally focused excitation be axially shifted by dispersion?

Temporal focusing (TF) allows for axially confined wide-field multi-photon excitation at the temporal focal plane. For temporally focused Gaussian beams, it was shown both theoretically and experimentally that the temporal focus plane can be shifted by applying a quadratic spectral phase to the incident beam. However, the case for more complex wave-fronts is quite different. Here we study the temporal focus plane shift (TFS) for a broader class of excitation profiles, with particular emphasis on the case of temporally focused computer generated holography (CGH) which allows for generation of arbitrary, yet speckled, 2D patterns. We present an analytical, numerical and experimental study of this phenomenon. The TFS is found to depend mainly on the autocorrelation of the CGH pattern in the direction of the beam dispersion after the grating in the TF setup. This provides a pathway for 3D control of multi-photon excitation patterns. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America