Abstract

The evolution of ultrafast optics has now arrived at a point where the laser pulse duration approaches the oscillation cycle of the visible/nearinfrared carrier waves (T_osc ≈ 2–3 fs). For significant further progress towards pulse durations of around 1 femtosecond or less one has to resort to shorter carrier wavelengths in the UV/VUV/ XUV spectral range. In the absence of laser media with sufficient bandwidth in these spectral regions, new generation techniques (other than laser mode locking) need to be developed. In addition, depending on the carrier wavelength, either the undistorted transport of sub-femtosecond pulses (e.g., through the interaction medium) or their temporal characterization issues an enormous challenge to the experimentalist.

© 2001 Optical Society of America