title: Shortening of a laser pulse with a self-modulated phase at the focus of a lens.
abstract: We found that, at the focus of a chromatic lens, a laser pulse with a self-modulated phase can be shortened due to the radial dependence of the group delay imposed by the lens. Normally, this group delay stretches a short pulse into a long pulse by spreading the arrival time of the pulse at the focus. However, for a pulse with a self-modulated phase, it causes the fields with different phases to overlap, thus resulting in destructive interference that shortens the pulse.
authors.affiliation: Accelerator Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA. ylli@aps.anl.gov
authors.forename: Yuelin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crowell