Simultaneous Enhancement of Contrast and Power of Femtosecond Laser Pulses by Nonlinear Interferometer

Abstract

We showed that the nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer may be used not only for enhancing temporal contrast, as proposed earlier, but also for increasing pulse power due to efficient pulse compression. The interferometer introduces into the output pulse a nonlinear phase equal to π/2. This allows increasing laser power by a factor of 1.5 only by means of a chirped mirror. Use of an additional nonlinear plate leads to a multi-fold power increase retaining the contrast enhancement.

Keywords

• nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer
• post compression
• femtosecond laser pulse contrast
• self phase modulation