Abstract

Supercontinuum generation (SCG) in bulk material is a generally applicable technique to broaden the spectrum of fixed frequency femtosecond laser pulses. The Fourier limit for a possible compression of, e.g., a 800 nm pumped continuum from sapphire, amounts to about 4 fs. Yet, no results have been published which show that bulk continua have intrinsically such short pulse durations. This is in striking contrast to continua generated in gas-filled hollow core fibers or in gas filamentation, where compression to below 4 fs has been shown.

© 2015 IEEE