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Further Methods for the Generation of Ultrashort Optical Pulses

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Femtosecond Laser Pulses

Part of the book series: Advanced Texts in Physics ((ADTP))

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Abstract

Up to the beginning of the sixties, the shortest measurable time duration was of the order of one nanosecond (10−9 s). Short pulses were produced through the generation of short electrical discharges. After the laser was invented in 1960, the situation quite rapidly changed. In 1965, the picosecond (10−12 s) regime was reached by placing a saturable absorber inside a laser cavity. Twenty years of continuous progress led to the production of light pulses of less than 10 femtoseconds. In the race towards ever shorter pulses, recent developments in the generation of tabletop X-ray lasers have opened the way to dynamical studies in the attosecond (10−18 s)regime [4.1-2]. In the meantime, progress was made on the tunability of the pulsed-laser sources. Today’s tunability extends from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared [4.2-6].

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  1. Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (IPCMS), UMR7504 CNRS-ULP-ECPM, 23 rue du Loess, BP 43, F-67034, Strasbourg Cedex2, France

    C. Hirlimann

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  1. Centre de Physique Moleéculaire Optique et Hertzienne (CPMOH), Université Bordeaux 1, 351, cours de la Libération, 33405, Talence Cedex, France

    Claude Rullière

  2. Centre d’Etudes Scientifiques et Techniques d’Aquitarine, Commissariat á l’Energie Aromique (CEA), BP 2, 33114, Le Barp, France

    Claude Rullière

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Hirlimann, C. (2005). Further Methods for the Generation of Ultrashort Optical Pulses. In: Rullière, C. (eds) Femtosecond Laser Pulses. Advanced Texts in Physics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-26674-7_4

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