Ultraviolet acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter laser pulse shaping in KDP

Abstract

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.

Generation of phase-controlled ultraviolet pulses and characterization by a simple autocorrelator setup

“…However, this concept is rather complex and limited by the optical convolution taking place during the nonlinear process, leading to coupling between amplitude and phase or to reduction in spectral resolution of the applied shaping. For direct UV phase modulation, acousto-optic modulators or reflective devices are required, which show enough transmission or reflectivity in the UV spectral region, respectively [8][9][10][11][12]. The first direct UV phase modulation was shown with a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) array, which combines phase wrapping and a comparable high density of actuators enabling complex phase synthesis [8].…”

Pulse Measurement Techniques Using an Acousto-Optic Programmable Dispersive Filter

“…In this section we demonstrate a single beam, achromatic, programmable and selfcompensated spectrally resolved interferometric autocorrelation technique which overcomes such drawbacks. This technique is based on the conjugate use of UV acoustooptic programmable dispersive filter (UV-AOPDF, Coudreau et al (2006)) and of a recently discovered third order non linear effect, cross-polarized wave (XPW) generation (Canova et al, 2008;Jullien et al, 2005).…”

Efficient broadband highly dispersive HfO_2/SiO_2 multilayer mirror for pulse compression in near ultraviolet

“…However, achieving sub-10 fs pulses requires special treatment to avoid spatial-and mode-distortion [11] and precise prism matching to guarantee compensation of the third order dispersion. Conventional pulse shapers [12] applicable to UV include micro mirrors (MEMS), deformable mirrors [13] or acousto-optic programmable dispersive filters (AOPDF) [14]. However, deformable mirrors and MEMS are limited by the maximum amplitude of the deformation [13], while AOPDF is doomed by rather low efficiency in UV (about 20% for 30 fs pulse in case of AOPDF [10]), though all provide unprecedented flexibility for pulse shaping.…”