Abstract

We review here our recent work on the formation of extremely powerful near- and subfemtosecond (sub-fs) pulses based on two new principles: □ The phase-locking [1] of multiple components of stimulated cascade Raman scattering (CSRS), that can produce an almost periodic train of powerful sub-fs pulses, with pulses as short as ~ 0.2 fs and spaced by ~ 8 fs. □ The generation of powerful "EM-bubbles" (EMBs) [2], unipolar very short solitary pulses of EM-radiation propagating in a gas of two-level or classically nonlinear atoms. This effect can generate a single EMB, or a few EMBs with controllabe parameters, easily separable into individual EMBs.

© 1997 Optical Society of America