S. De Silvestri

Compression of high-energy laser pulses below 5 fs.

High-energy 20-fs pulses generated by a Ti:sapphire laser system were spectrally broadened to more than 250 nm by self-phase modulation in a hollow fiber filled with noble gases and subsequently compressed in a broadband high-throughput dispersive system. Pulses as short as 4.5 fs with energy up to 20-microJ were obtained with krypton, while pulses as short as 5 fs with energy up to 70 microJ were obtained with argon. These pulses are, to our knowledge, the shortest generated to date at multigigawatt peak powers.

Sub-8-fs pulses from an ultrabroadband optical parametric amplifier in the visible

Pulses with 180-THz bandwidth and 2-microJ energy were generated by a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier in the visible, pumped by the second harmonic of a Ti:sapphire laser. A portion of the amplified pulse spectrum was compressed to 7.2 fs by use of a thin prism sequence.

Generation of 3.8-fs pulses from adaptive compression of a cascaded hollow fiber supercontinuum

We demonstrate generation of 3.8-fs pulses with energies of up to 15 microJ from a supercontinuum produced in two cascaded hollow fibers. Ultrabroadband dispersion compensation was achieved through a closed-loop combination of a spatial light modulator for adaptive pulse compression and spectral-phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) measurements as feedback signal.

Self-starting Kerr-lens mode locking of a Ti:sapphire laser.

It is shown that Kerr-lens mode locking of a Ti:sapphire laser, with no intracavity elements except the laser rod and the dispersion-compensating prisms, can be made to be completely self-starting. We achieve this result by carefully designing the resonator to maximize the nonlinear mode variations and dynamic loss modulation.

Solid-state laser unstable resonators with tapered reflectivity mirrors: the super-Gaussian approach

A general procedure for treating solid-state laser unstable resonators with tapered reflectivity mirrors within the framework of geometrical optics is presented. A suitable choice of the analytical form of the reflectivity profile, which can simulate many experimental devices, makes possible the derivation of simple design equations for the resonator parameters. Experiments performed with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser containing a variable-reflectivity output coupler, implemented with vacuum evaporation techniques, are discussed. >

Diode-pumped cw bulk Er:Yb:glass laser

ontinuous-wave laser operation of bulk Er:Yb:phosphate glass pumped at 980 nm by an InGaAs index-guided diode laser has been achieved for the first time to our knowledge, with 2 mW of output power obtained at 1.54 microm. To optimize pumping conditions and to investigate the effects of pump wavelength, the Er(3+):Yb(3+) glass disk has also been pumped by a Ti:Al(2)O(3) laser at 960 and 980 nm, and we obtained high output power (70 mW) and the highest slope efficiency (21% for 980-nm pumping) reported to date for a bulk Er:glass laser.

Lasers with super-Gaussian mirrors

A systematic theoretical and experimental investigation of unstable resonators with variable reflectivity mirrors of a super-Gaussian profile is presented. The validity of a geometrical optics formalism for an algebraic mode calculation is discussed in comparison to the diffraction theory. A new method for the calculation of the output energy by means of a closed-form relationship that accounts for the effects of the transverse mode profile on gain saturation is presented. Various dielectric super-Gaussian mirrors have been fabricated, characterized, and tested in a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Super-Gaussian resonators can provide even higher output energies than those of traditional unstable resonators and with better beam-focusing properties. >

Highly efficient parametric conversion of femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser pulses at 1 kHz

Pulses with energies as high as 150 microJ and durations as low as 60 f(s) were generated from 1.1 to 2.6 microm by a traveling-wave parametric converter pumped by femtosecond pulses of a Ti:sapphire laser with chirped-pulse amplification.

Pulse compression over a 170-THz bandwidth in the visible by use of only chirped mirrors

We report on double-chirped mirrors with custom-tailored dispersion characteristics over a bandwidth of 170 THz in the visible. The mirrors are used in a prismless compressor for a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier in the visible. The compressed pulses, characterized for the what is believed to be first time by use of the spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction technique, display a nearly flat phase from 510 to 710 nm and have a duration of 5.7 fs.

Resonators for Kerr-lens mode-locked femtosecond Ti:sapphire lasers

Resonators for Kerr-lens mode-locked lasers are studied with the help of an analytical model, and a new design procedure is presented. The experiments performed with a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser demonstrate that this model permits an effective resonator design and offers reliable guidelines for the final experimental optimization. With a suitable resonator configuration, self-starting of the Kerr-lens mode-locking regime has been achieved.