Ultrafast spatiotemporal laser pulse engineering using chromatic dispersion

Abstract

We discuss a new method for manipulating the optical field distribution in time and space at the focal plane of a chromatic lens. Chromatic dispersion and aberration make it possible to control the photon distribution in both time and space by properly controlling the amplitude and phase of the incident laser pulse, including shortening a laser pulse or generating a specific time-dependent transverse distribution. As an example, we discuss the generation of a quasi-three-dimensional ellipsoidal photon distribution and a proof-of-principle experiment, where favourable agreement between theoretical calculations and the data is observed. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.