Pulse shaping of octave spanning femtosecond laser pulses

Characterization and pulse shaping of octave spanning femtosecond lasers poses a significant challenge. We have constructed a grating-based pulse shaper for an ultra-broad-bandwidth (620-1020 nm) femtosecond laser, and used it to compensate the phase distortions of the laser, spatial-light modulator and optics within 0.1 rad accuracy accross the entire bandwidth using Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan (MIIPS) without a precompressor. The compensated transform limited pulses generated a second harmonic spectrum with a 12,260 cm(-1) spectral width. Binary phase modulation was introduced by this pulse shaping system to demonstrate high resolution control of the second harmonic generation spectrum. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.