Abstract

During the past six years, there has been a revolution in the field of ultrafast laser technology. This rapid progress in research continues to increase applications of these lasers in areas such as physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. Pulses as short as 8 fs have been demonstrated directly from a simple laser oscillator over a year ago, based on Kerrlens modelocking (KLM) and improved dispersion compensation techniques. The fundamental limits to pulse shortening have not yet been reached, and no clear consensus yet exists in the community of experts as to the possible ultimate limitations. Other key developments are the recent demonstrations of all-solid-state (diode-pumped) ultrafast lasers such as Nd:YAG, Cr:LiSAF and Nd:glass which provide simple and reliable picosecond to sub-100 fs pulses. We review various results from other groups and discuss in more detail our approach based on semiconductor saturable absorbers.

© 1996 Optical Society of America