Pulse compression with periodic gratings and zone plate gratings

Lord Rayleigh noted that a short noise pulse, upon reflection from a periodic grating, is transformed into a chirped pulse. Conversely, an ascending frequency signal is, upon reflection, compressed into one of shorter length. This letter extends the concept to the compression of pulses reflected from zone plate gratings, and contrasts this with the recently described use of zone plate envelopes for pulse compression. The possibility of compressing laser pulses into shorter, more powerful pulses is discussed.