Femtosecond Laser Pulses: Generation, Measurement and Propagation

Abstract

In this contribution some basic properties of femtosecond laser pulse are summarized. In sections 2.1–2.5 the generation of femtosecond laser pulses via mode locking is described in simple physical terms. In section 2.6 we deal with measurement of ultrashort laser pulses. The characterization of ultrashort pulses with respect to amplitude and phase is therefore based on optical correlation techniques that make of the short pulse itself. In section 3 we start with the linear properties of ultrashort light pulses. However, due to the large bandwidth, the linear dispersion is responsible for dramatic effects. To describe and manage such dispersion effects a mathematical description of an ultrashort laser pulse is given first before we continue with methods how to change the temporal shape via the frequency domain. The chapter ends with a paragraph of the wavelet representation of an ultrashort laser pulse.