10-fs pulses from two-stage capillary-prism compressor

Summary form only given. The use of femtosecond laser pulses has advanced the understanding of atomic, molecular and solid-state dynamics. This progress has created the need for even shorter pulses and prompted the further development of femtosecond lasers and pulse compressors. An elegant way of reducing the pulse width was first demonstrated by Nisoli et al. (1996), who used a hollow core fiber-prism compressor to shorten high-energy 140-fs pulses to 10 fs (assuming sech/sup 2/ pulse shape). In this compressor the laser pulses are first spectrally broadened by self-phase modulation in a hollow core fiber waveguide filled with noble gasses at high pressure. Subsequently, a portion of the broadened spectrum is carefully selected and compressed by a pair of prisms. In a later version Nisoli et al. implemented chirped mirrors in the compressor in order to correct for high-order dispersion effects and were thus able to compress 20-fs pulses down to sub 5 fs. We present a two-stage capillary-prism compressor capable of producing 30-fs pulses from the first stage and 1O-fs pulses from the second compressor stage.