  The ability to use coherent light for material science and applications is
directly linked to our ability to measure short optical pulses. While
free-space optical methods are well-established, achieving this on a chip would
offer the greatest benefit in footprint, performance, flexibility and cost, and
allow the integration with complementary signal processing devices. A key goal
is to achieve operation at sub-Watt peak power levels and on sub-picosecond
timescales. Previous integrated demonstrations require either a temporally
synchronized reference pulse, an off-chip spectrometer, or long tunable delay
lines. We report the first device capable of achieving single-shot time-domain
measurements of near-infrared picosecond pulses based on an ultra-compact
integrated CMOS compatible device, with the potential to be fully integrated
without any external instrumentation. It relies on optical third-harmonic
generation in a slow-light silicon waveguide. Our method can also serve as a
powerful in-situ diagnostic tool to directly map, at visible wavelengths, the
propagation dynamics of near-infrared pulses in photonic crystals.
