Pulse self-compression to the single-cycle limit by filamentation in a gas with a pressure gradient.
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.
Couairon
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A
Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS UMR 7644, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France. couairon@cpht.polytechnique.fr
Franco
M
M
Mysyrowicz
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A
Biegert
J
J
Keller
U
U