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An acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter pulse shaper has been designed using KDP material for operation in the 200-500 nm wavelength range. With an acousto-optic interaction length of 72 mm, a spectral resolution of 0.15 nm has been measured to be consistent with theoretical predictions. Theory and experiments indicate that diffraction efficiencies up to 50% are expected in practical experimental conditions.

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We introduce the notion of temporal superresolution for ultrashort laser pulses, by analogy with the well-known method of optical superresolution in imaging systems. Simple linear spectral masks are presented, that shapes a laser pulse into a central peak of very short duration, well below the Fourier limited width of Gaussian pulses, but accompanied by low intensity satellite pulses. A proof-of-principle experiment is presented, using a short pulse, high intensity laser system. Such lasers may induce very strongly non linear phenomena in laser-matter interactions, suppressing the effect of the satellite pulses and therefore fully mimicking shorter light pulses. As an example, we show theoretically that the field ionization asymmetry induced by cosine few cycle pulses is strongly enhanced using temporally superresolved laser pulses.