How do I convert the x-axis of an FFT from frequency to wavelength?

54 views (last 30 days)
% speed of light m/s
c = 299792458;
% pulse duration (T=tau)
FWHM = 30e-15;
T = FWHM/(2*(sqrt(log(2))));
% central wavelngth and central angular frequency
lambda0 = 800e-9;
w0 = (2*pi*c)/lambda0;
% chirp
eta = 2;
% time interval
t = -55e-15:.1e-15:55e-15;
% spectral phase
phi_t = 0;
% length of FFT # of sampling points
nfft = 200;
% This is an evenly spaced frequency vector
f = [0:nfft - 1]/nfft;
% wavelength interval and angular frequency conversion
lambda = (740e-9:20e-9:860e-9);
w = (2.*pi.*c)./lambda;
% electric field
E_t = exp((-t.^2/(2*T.^2)) + (-i*w0*t-(1/2)*i*eta*t.^2)); %*phi_t));
% Take fft, padding with zeros so that length(E_w) is equal to nfft
E_w = abs(fftshift(fft(E_t,nfft)));
I_w = ((abs(E_w)).^2);
I_lambda = I_w.'*((2.*pi.*c)./lambda); (This is where I'm trying to convert to wavelength)
% Plot
subplot(2, 1, 1);
plot(t, real(E_t));
title('Gaussian Pulse Signal');
xlabel('time (s)');
ylabel('E_t');
subplot(2, 1, 2);
plot(lambda, E_w);
xlabel('\lambda');
ylabel('E_\omega');

Accepted Answer

Wayne King
Wayne King on 29 Jun 2013
Edited: Wayne King on 29 Jun 2013
This runs perfectly for me:
c = 299792458;
% pulse duration (T=tau)
FWHM = 30e-15;
T = FWHM/(2*(sqrt(log(2))));
% central wavelngth and central angular frequency
lambda0 = 800e-9;
w0 = (2*pi*c)/lambda0;
% chirp
eta = 2;
% time interval
t = -55e-15:.1e-15:55e-15;
% spectral phase
phi_t = 0;
% wavelength interval and angular frequency conversion
lambda = (740e-9:20e-9:860e-9);
w = (2.*pi.*c)./lambda;
% electric field
E_t = exp((-t.^2/(2*T.^2)) + (i*w0*t-(1/2)*i*eta*t.^2)); %*phi_t));
Edft = fftshift(fft(E_t));
dt = t(2)-t(1);
Fs = 1/dt;
df = Fs/length(E_t);
freq = -Fs/2+df:df:Fs/2;
lambda = c./freq;
plot(lambda,abs(Edft).^2);
set(gca,'xlim',[0 10e-7])
And it shows the correct wavelength.

More Answers (1)

Wayne King
Wayne King on 28 Jun 2013
Edited: Wayne King on 29 Jun 2013
E_t = exp((-t.^2/(2*T.^2)) + (i*w0*t-(1/2)*i*eta*t.^2));
Edft = fftshift(fft(E_t));
dt = t(2)-t(1);
Fs = 1/dt;
df = Fs/length(E_t);
freq = -Fs/2+df:df:Fs/2;
lambda = c./freq;
plot(lambda,abs(Edft).^2);
Now the wavelength you expect is
c/(w0/(2*pi))
so zoom in on that
set(gca,'xlim',[0 10e-7])
You see the peak at 8x10^{-7} as you expect
  3 Comments
Wayne King
Wayne King on 29 Jun 2013
Edited: Wayne King on 29 Jun 2013
That is the frequency separation between the DFT bins. Sorry I forgot that line of code:
df = 1/(dt*length(E_t));
or equivalently
df = Fs/length(E_t);
I've added it above.
Joe
Joe on 5 Jul 2013
Just to clarify... What is t(2) and t(1)? I know that dt is the time separation, but I'm not sure why you used t(2) and t(1). Also, is there another way of getting dt?

Sign in to comment.

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!