title: Ultrashort laser pulse beam shaping.
abstract: We calculated the temporal and spatial characteristics of an ultrashort laser pulse propagating through a diffractive beam-shaping system that converts a Gaussian beam into a beam with a uniform irradiance profile that was originally designed for continuous waves [Proc. SPIE 2863, 237(1996)]. The pulse front is found to be considerably curved for a 10-fs pulse, resulting in a temporal broadening of the pulse that increases with increasing radius. The spatial intensity distribution deviates significantly from a top-hat profile, whereas the fluence shows a homogeneous radial distribution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Science, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA. sxzhan@wm.edu
authors.forename: Shuyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yuhang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Gunter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lüpke