Spectral compression of femtosecond pulses using chirped volume Bragg gratings

Opt Lett. 2016 Jun 1;41(11):2394-7. doi: 10.1364/OL.41.002394.

Abstract

In this Letter, we demonstrate a 360 fold spectral bandwidth reduction of femtosecond laser pulses using the method of sum frequency generation of pulses with opposite chirps. The reduction has been achieved in a compact setup in which a single chirped volume Bragg grating replaces conventional stretcher and compressor units. Starting with 180 fs pulses, we have obtained, with a 30% overall efficiency, pulses longer than 100 ps with the spectral bandwidth of 0.23 cm-1 (7 GHz). We also discuss our method on theoretical grounds.