Abstract

So far intense femtosecond laser pulses in the spectral range of short wavelength visible (SVIS) and UV have been generated via second harmonic and sum frequency generation. However, due to the dispersion and related problems in nonlinear crystals the requirement of broadband frequency conversion limits the achievable energy of the generated UV pulse. Also, the narrow spectral gain of the readily available excimer laser amplifiers limits the bandwidth of amplification while the relatively broadband newly developed solid state materials exhibit a small gain only.

© 2001 EPS