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Self-focusing and Self-defocusing of Femtosecond Pulses with Cascaded Quadratic Nonlinearities

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Self-focusing: Past and Present

Part of the book series: Topics in Applied Physics ((TAP,volume 114))

Abstract

Nonlinear phase shifts, either self-focusing or self-defocusing, can be impressed on pulses that propagate in quadratic nonlinear media. The issues that arise in the extension of these phase shifts to the femtosecond regime are outlined in this chapter, and applications to femtosecond pulse generation and propagation are reviewed. Quadratic media appear to be unique in offering a means of impressing self-defocusing nonlinear phase shifts on ultrashort pulses. Ongoing work that extends the investigation of controllable nonlinear phase shifts to pulses with a duration of a few optical cycles will be introduced.

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Wise, F.W., Moses, J. (2009). Self-focusing and Self-defocusing of Femtosecond Pulses with Cascaded Quadratic Nonlinearities. In: Boyd, R.W., Lukishova, S.G., Shen, Y. (eds) Self-focusing: Past and Present. Topics in Applied Physics, vol 114. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-34727-1_20

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