Abstract

Pulse compression is a useful tool to reduce the laser pulse duration down to the bandwidth limited region. At the same time, this increases the obtainable pulse peak power. We have demonstrated the use of a high diffraction efficiency volume phase gelatin transmission grating pair to compress gigawatt femtosecond laser pulse duration down to the 85-fs bandwidth limited vale. The dispersive parameter of the transmission grating pair based on the Treacy reflection grating pair approach is a good guideline for practical adjustment.

© 1985 Optical Society of America