Self-shortening of femtosecond laser pulses propagating in rare gas medium

Self-shortening of high-intensity femtosecond pulses in rare gases Ar and K r has been found at normal dispersion conditions. The self-shortening resul ts in soliton formation due to the medium nonlinearity higher than the thir d-order, which is the first experimental observation of such type of solito n. A new compression technique, scalable for high-energy femtosecond pulses , has been achieved based on this phenomenon.