Ultrashort-pulse lasers inspire increasing researcher interest because of their wide possibilities of application in various branches of science and technology. Rapid development of such lasers during the last decade made it possible to obtain pulses of duration in the femtosecond range and to increase their energy and power by several orders of magnitude. Considerable development was attained in improvement of operation stability, increase of repetition frequency, and enhancement of tunability of femtosecond lasers, which made them indispensable research tools applied in many laboratories. The paper describes principal ideas concerning generation of femtosecond pulses and reviews important achievements in femtosecond laser investigations. Ultrashort-pulse formation mechanisms in passively mode- locked lasers and the role of dispersion and self-phase modulation in techniques for generation of such pulses are discussed. Principal methods for generation of femtosecond pulses in dye lasers and solid-state lasers are characterized, techniques for ultrashort-pulse generation within the ultraviolet with the use of excimer lasers are described, and typical construction layouts of femtosecond lasers are presented.

Date Published: 1 March 1995
PDF: 16 pages
Proc. SPIE 2202, Laser Technology IV: Research Trends, Instrumentation, and Applications in Metrology and Materials Processing, (1 March 1995); doi: 10.1117/12.203266

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2202:
Laser Technology IV: Research Trends, Instrumentation, and Applications in Metrology and Materials Processing
Wieslaw L. Wolinski; Zdzislaw Jankiewicz; Jerzy K. Gajda; Bohdan K. Wolczak, Editor(s)