Few-optical-cycle laser pulses by OPA: broadband chirped mirror compression and SPIDER characterization

Abstract.

We report double-chirped mirrors with custom-tailored dispersion over a bandwidth of 170 THz in the visible. The mirrors are employed in a prism-less compressor for ultra-broadband pulses generated by a non-collinear visible optical parametric amplifier. We also report on the full characterization in amplitude and phase of the compressed pulses by the spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction technique, extended to the visible range. The compressed pulses display an almost flat phase from 510 to 710 nm and have nearly transform-limited 5.7-fs duration. Our measurements indicate a potential to further extend the useable bandwidth of mirror-only dispersion-compensation schemes using novel chirped mirror design approaches.