Abstract

A heretofore unexploited capability of femtosecond chirped pulse amplification systems is the production of shaped pulses. This can be accomplished by phase and amplitude modulation of the pulses prior to amplification by a series of strategically located liquid crystal modulators. The system is suitable for kilohertz amplifiers which produce pulses with peak powers on the order of 10 GW, or 10-Hz amplifiers which can produce TW peak powers. Such a laser source is capable of addressing a variety of challenging scientific problems in a number of fields including chemistry, atomic and plasma physics.

© 1994 Optical Society of America