The generation of ultrashort laser pulses
- 1 February 1995
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Reports on Progress in Physics
- Vol. 58 (2), 169-262
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/58/2/001
Abstract
Summary form only given. This article is intended to provide an introduction to ultrafast laser development for scientists new to the field. It also aims to provide a snapshot of the state-of-the-art of ultrafast lasers and to indicate how this state evolved over the last thirty years. In the first section, the main issues concerning ultrashort pulse generation are discussed and the most important ultrafast laser media are briefly reviewed, An extensive historical survey of mode-locking and pulse compression from 1964 until 1994 is then presented which covers the most important developments and aims to put recent advances and state-of-the-art femtosecond lasers in context. This review also anticipates future developments in practical ultrafast lasers for real-world applications, The basic techniques of mode-locking are then reviewed at a tutorial level. These include active mode-locking, passive mode-locking with real, resonant saturable absorbers and passive mode-locking with the optical Kerr effect. Emphasis is placed on ultrafast solid-state lasers, dye lasers and fibre lasers. Group velocity dispersion and self-phase modulation are introduced and their interaction discussed in some detail, Fibre-optic pulse compression is described and the significance of soliton shaping and solitary lasers is highlighted. Some of the phenomena limiting the minimum achievable duration of laser pulses are identified. The final section describes techniques for measuring ultrashort pulses including electrooptic streak cameras and second harmonic generation autocorrelation.Keywords
This publication has 346 references indexed in Scilit:
- Ultrashort-pulse sources based on single-mode rare-earth-doped fibersApplied Physics B Laser and Optics, 1994
- Characteristics of a neodymium-doped fiber laser mode-locked with a linear external cavityOptics Communications, 1991
- Characterisation of a cw titanium-doped sapphire laser mode-locked with a linear external cavityOptics Communications, 1991
- Pulse shaping and passive mode-locking with a nonlinear Michelson interferometerOptics Communications, 1986
- A hybridly mode-locked CW dye laser with brewster prismsOptics Communications, 1986
- A femtosecond hybrid mode locked Rhodamine B dye laserOptics Communications, 1986
- Pulse fluctuations and chirp compensation in colliding-pulse mode-locked dye lasersOptics Communications, 1986
- Pulses in the femtosecond range from a cw dye ring laser in the colliding pulse mode-locking (CPM) regime with down-chirpOptics Communications, 1982
- Generation and measurement of 200 femtosecond optical pulsesOptics Communications, 1978
- SUBPICOSECOND PULSE GENERATION USING THE OPTICAL KERR EFFECTApplied Physics Letters, 1969