title: Bichromatic, phase compensating interferometer based on prism pair compressors.
abstract: We present a bichromatic prism pair interferometer (BPPI) for controlling the delay between laser pulses of two different frequencies propagating collinearly in a single beam. The BPPI is especially useful when working with ultrafast laser pulses because it intrinsically allows for independent control over the second-order dispersion experienced by the differently colored pulses. We use this control to demonstrate successful precompensation for blue (lambda approximately 390 nm) and UV (lambda approximately 260 nm) pulses that pass through 2.2 cm of dispersive material after the interferometer. The BPPI is extremely flexible and works with all frequencies from the UV to the near-infrared. We demonstrate this by describing measurements made with BPPIs configured for three different combinations of central frequencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, New York 11794-3800, USA. danflick@grad.physics.sunysb.edu
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Flickinger
authors.forename: Ryan N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Coffee
authors.forename: George N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.forename: Thomas C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Weinacht