title: Pulse self-compression to the single-cycle limit by filamentation in a gas with a pressure gradient.
abstract: We calculate pulse self-compression of a 30 fs laser pulse traversing gas with different pressure gradients. We show that an appropriate density profile brings significant improvement to the self-compression by filamentation. Under an optimal pressure gradient, the pulse duration is reduced to the single optical cycle limit over a long distance, allowing easy extraction into an interaction chamber.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS UMR 7644, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France. couairon@cpht.polytechnique.fr
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Couairon
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mysyrowicz
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Biegert
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Keller