Abstract

There has been extensive research and development of femtosecond laser systems in which the self-mode-locking technique, first reported at CLEO ’90,^1,2 is utilized. As a consequence, femtosecond lasers are now available with unprecedented tunabilities and peak-pulse powers. When such oscillator outputs are combined with regenerative and chirped-pulse amplifier arrangements, multi-teraWatt optical powers can be generated with excellent reliability and reproducibility. Access to extended tuning ranges can be readily and efficiently obtained by using such femtosecond lasers either directly or with regenerative amplification as pump sources for optical parametric oscillators and generators (amplifiers) respectively. Moreover, the exploitation of further intracavity or extracavity nonlinear frequency-mixing techniques, opens up additional ultraviolet/visible and mid-infrared spectral regions while x-ray generation in laser-produced plasmas provides ultrashot pulses in the high photon- energy regime.

© 1995 Optical Society of America