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Ultrafast Laser Physics

Author: the photonics expert Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta

Definition: the area of laser physics dealing with ultrashort processes

Categories: article belongs to category laser devices and laser physics laser devices and laser physics, article belongs to category light pulses light pulses

DOI: 10.61835/z8v Cite the article: BibTex plain text HTML

Ultrafast laser physics is the area of laser physics which is dealing with “ultrafast” processes in lasers, i.e. processes occurring on a time scale of picoseconds, femtoseconds, or faster. Of particular importance are processes concerning the generation of ultrashort pulses of light. Examples of such phenomena are:

ultrafast nonlinearities in the context of light propagation, such as the Kerr effect, Raman scattering and four-wave mixing
ultrafast excitation, saturation and relaxation phenomena in semiconductors, such as semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors or laser diodes
fast processes in laser gain media, e.g. thermalization of the Stark levels within a Stark level manifold of a rare-earth-doped laser crystal
effects of such phenomena on the pulse formation in lasers (→ mode locking)

It can also be of interest how other phenomena, e.g. chromatic dispersion, influence ultrafast processes.

There is a wider area called ultrafast optics which also covers phenomena outside lasers.

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