We calculated the temporal and spatial characteristics of an ultrashort laser pulse propagating through a diffractive beam-shaping system that converts a Gaussian beam into a beam with a uniform irradiance profile that was originally designed for continuous waves [Proc. SPIE 2863, 237 (1996)]. The pulse front is found to be considerably curved for a 10-fs pulse, resulting in a temporal broadening of the pulse that increases with increasing radius. The spatial intensity distribution deviates significantly from a top-hat profile, whereas the fluence shows a homogeneous radial distribution.
© 2003 Optical Society of America
Original Manuscript: July 3, 2002
Revised Manuscript: October 25, 2002
Published: February 1, 2003
Shuyan Zhang, Yuhang Ren, and Gunter Lüpke, "Ultrashort laser pulse beam shaping," Appl. Opt. 42, 715-718 (2003)