Ultrafast Dispersion

While the effect of dispersion is minimal for many types of laser systems, it is especially problematic in ultrafast laser applications. Ultrafast lasers are characterized by short pulse durations on the order of picoseconds, femtoseconds, or attoseconds. Due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, transform-limited ultrafast pulses reaching the lower limit of their pulse duration have a wide wavelength bandwidth (Figure 1). As these wide bandwidth pulses transmit through optical media, chromatic dispersion lengthens the pulse duration, which is detrimental in ultrafast applications.