Abstract

The practicality and reliability of ultrashortpulse lasers have been markedly enhanced by the application of the Kerr-effect-based, selfmodelocking technique [1,2], In the femtosecond regime, numerous laboratories have reported the generation of sub-20 fs pulses and near bandwidth- limited 8fs pulses have been reported [3,4], Interestingly, the amplification of such hypershort pulses using chirped-pulse amplification methodology [5] promises to open up a range of new and exciting topics in basic physics and so some recent results in this research area will be reviewed.

© 1996 Optical Society of America