Isochronic and isodispersive carrier-envelope phase-shift compensators

Abstract

The design of mixed wedge pairs for control of the carrier-envelope phase of femtosecond laser pulses is discussed. The wedge pairs can be designed in such a way that they practically only compensate for the difference between group and phase delay, but leave either the group delay or the dispersion of the wedge assembly constant. Such isochronous or isodispersive compensators can be used for intracavity as well as for extracavity applications. Other side effects, such as the residual angular dispersion of the wedge pair are considered, and it is shown, both theoretically and experimentally, that material combinations exist that even enable a good compromise in reducing practically all disturbing side effects. Based on the two commonly available Schott glasses N-BK10 and N-PK51, a compensator assembly is experimentally tested inside a 10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillator. It is found that undesired variations of the laser repetition rate are reduced by a factor 50 compared to a set of identical silica wedges.