Arbitrary dispersion control of ultrashort optical pulses with acoustic waves

Acousto-optic programmable dispersive filters (AOPDF) can compensate in rea l time for large amounts of group-delay dispersion. This feature can be use d in chirped-pulse amplification femtosecond laser chains to compensate ada ptively for dispersion. An analytical expression relating the group delay a t the output of the AOPDF to the input acoustic signal is obtained with cou pled-wave theory in the case of collinear and quasi-collinear bulk acousto- optic interactions and also in the case of planar waveguides and optical fi bers. With this relation, the acoustic signal that will induce an arbitrary group-delay variation with frequency can be easily obtained. Numerical sim ulations are shown to support the principle of arbitrary group-delay contro l (C) 2000 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(00)01701-X] easily obtain ed. with an AOPDF. OCIS codes: 230.1040, 320.1590, 320.5520, 320.5540.