Vol. 34, Issue 1, pp. 25-29 (2004)

Abstract

Ultrashort pulse generation relies on a high quality of the laser cavity dispersion control. Common dielectric thin-film coatings, the broadband antireflection (AR) coatings being included, may introduce great fluctuations on the group delay dispersion (GDD) and the third order dispersion (TOD) of the reflected pulse. By accumulation in time, these fluctuations may contribute to the alteration or the cease of the ultrafast regime, especially in ring laser resonators. With an insignificant computational effort, optimized broadband AR coatings may be designed to provide near-zero values of the GDD and the TOD at the expense of poor AR quality.