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Generation And Use Of Femtosecond, Gigawatt, Near Infrared Laser Pulses From An Amplified, Mode-Locked, Ti:Sapphire Laser, David Anthony Valdés

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

This work modeled the early to middle successes achieved in the field of ultrafast, high peak power optics, beginning with the work of Nobel Prize winners Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou in 1985. In our work, 100 fs light pulses of around 800 nm were generated by a Ti:Sapphire oscillator, then amplified to approximately 30 GW peak power using a chirped pulse amplification system that included regenerative and multi-pass amplifiers. As a verification of our pulses having high peak powers and ultrashort durations, they were then used to strike water, glass, and a Kerr Cell. Supercontinuum generation was observed as …