Ultrashort pulse generation in bulk and fibre lasers

Significant advances have been made in the growth of laser media which exhibit exceptionally broad gain bandwidths, with the potential of utilising these for the production and support of wavelength tunable ultrashort pulses. The materials have been produced in glasses and crystals and laser action has been demonstrated in both bulk and fibre format. Through utilizing the pulse shaping mechanisms inside the laser, the pulse quality is considerably improved to that of pulses generated through using external compression techniques. The author presents some specific laser systems and pulse forming schemes for the production of femtosecond pulses in simple laser geometries