Abstract

Focusing intense ultrashort laser pulses into transparent dielectrica can lead to one of the most fascinating phenomena in ultrafast optics - white-light generation. The resulting femtosecond supercontinua are used for various applications such as transient spectroscopy, optical parametric amplification or carrier envelope phase measurements. The standard bulk material for white-light generation is sapphire, which allows the generation of a high quality single filament [1] spanning from the blue to the NIR with modest input energy.

© 2009 IEEE