Amplitude and phase control of ultrashort pulses by use of an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter: pulse compression and shaping

We demonstrate experimentally that an arbitrary phase and amplitude profile can be applied to an ultrashort pulse by use of an acousto-optic programma ble dispersive filter (AOPDF). Our filter has a large group-delay range tha t extends over 3 ps and a 30% diffraction efficiency over 150 THz. Experime nts were conducted on a kilohertz chirped-pulse amplification laser chain c apable of generating 30-fs pulses without additional pulse shaping. Compens ating for gain narrowing and residual phase errors with an AOPDF in place o f the stretcher results in 17-fs transform-limited pulses. Arbitrary shapin g of these 17-fs pulses is also demonstrated in both the temporal and the s pectral domains. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America. OCIS codes: 140.7090, 230.1040, 320.5520.