Abstract

We extend the concept of divided-pulse amplification to nonlinear compression by replacing the amplifier with a spectral broadening stage. Splitting, spectral broadening and recombination of four pulse replica and a subsequent compression to sub-100fs pulses is successfully demonstrated. This scheme helps to overcome current limits (self-focusing, ionization, damage threshold) of post-compression stages and can, therefore, be applied to a multitude of experiments.

© 2013 Optical Society of America