Stretching and compressing of laser pulses is demonstrated with a sing
le-grating apparatus. A laser pulse of 110 fs is stretched to 250 ps a
nd then recompressed to 115 fs. The apparatus exploits a two-level str
ucture: one level for stretching and the other for compressing. This s
ingle-grating configuration shows significant simplification in struct
ure and alignment over existing multiple-grating systems. Such a stret
cher-compressor is particularly suitable for use with chirped-pulse am
plification in which laser wavelength tuning is desirable. Only one ro
tational adjustment is required to restore the alignment of the entire
stretcher and compressor when the laser wavelength is changed.