Pulse Compression and Shaping for a Femtosecond Regenerative Amplifier System with an Acousto-Optic Programmable Dispersive Filter

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrated that flexible shaping in both the phase and amplitude of ultrashort pulses amplified by a regenerative amplifier is obtainable with an acousto-optic programmable dispersion filter (AOPDF), which was located before a pulse stretcher. Because of the wide dynamic range of the AOPDF, gain narrowing during amplification can be pre-compensated by reducing the transmission at the center of a seed pulse spectrum. For a seed pulse spectrum width of 45 nm (FWHM), the amplified spectrum was broadened to -50 nm (FWHM) from -19 nm. Flexible pulse shaping is attainable by programming both the amplitude and phase of the input spectrum by the AOPDF.