Evolution of The Frequency Chirp of Gaussian Pulses PDF

Evolution of the frequency chirp of Gaussian
pulses and beams when passing through a pulse

compressor
Derong Li
1, 3
, Xiaohua Lv
1
*, Pamela Bowlan
2
,
Rui Du
1
, Shaoqun Zeng
1
, Qingming Luo
1

1
Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong
University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
2
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Physics 837 State Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 USA
3
Key Lab for Biomedical Informatics and Health Engineering, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering,
Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China
*xhlv@mail.hust.edu.cn
Abstract: The evolution of the frequency chirp of a laser pulse inside a
classical pulse compressor is very different for plane waves and Gaussian
beams, although after propagating through the last (4th) dispersive element,
the two models give the same results. In this paper, we have analyzed the
evolution of the frequency chirp of Gaussian pulses and beams using a
method which directly obtains the spectral phase acquired by the
compressor. We found the spatiotemporal couplings in the phase to be the
fundamental reason for the difference in the frequency chirp acquired by a
Gaussian beam and a plane wave. When the Gaussian beam propagates, an
additional frequency chirp will be introduced if any spatiotemporal
couplings (i.e. angular dispersion, spatial chirp or pulse front tilt) are
present. However, if there are no couplings present, the chirp of the
Gaussian beam is the same as that of a plane wave. When the Gaussian
beam is well collimated, the introduced frequency chirp predicted by the
plane wave and Gaussian beam models are in closer agreement. This work
improves our understanding of pulse compressors and should be helpful for
optimizing dispersion compensation schemes in many applications of
femtosecond laser pulses.
2009 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (320.0320) Ultrafast optics; (320.5520) Pulse compression; (260.2030) Dispersion
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1. Introduction
A classical pulse compressor (commonly including four gratings or prisms, or a pair of
gratings and prisms with a double-pass configuration) [1,2] can stretch or compress a
femtosecond laser pulse by introducing variable amounts of positive or negative frequency
chirp (also referred to as just the chirp). Pulse compressors are ubiquitous in ultrafast optics
because of their ability to tailor the pulses temporal duration, which is essential for making
and maintaining intense, short pulses. Important applications include chirped-pulse
amplification (CPA) and material-dispersion compensation, the latter of which is necessary
for generating ultrashort pulses [35]. Since the duration of the pulse after the compressor
depends on its group-delay dispersion, it is vital to able to accurately calculate this quantity
[68].
In some practical applications, the classical 4-dispersive element compressor is not always
suitable, and instead, a single angular dispersion element [911] or a pair of angular
dispersion elements (also just referred to as an element) in a single-pass configuration [12
14] are used to for dispersion control. In these cases, spatiotemporal couplings (meaning that
there are x-, or equivalently x-t cross terms in the field) such as angular dispersion, spatial
chirp, and pulse front tilt are present in the output pulse, making it even more difficult to
calculate the chirp that is added to the pulse by the compressor.
To model compressors, either a plane wave [1,2,912], or a Gaussian beam [58,1518])
model is usually used. Martinez first showed that these two models sometimes give very
different results. Namely, the propagation dependence of the chirp of a pulse while
propagating inside a classical pulse compressor is very different for the two types of beams.
Interestingly, however, after propagating through the 4th dispersive element (i.e., once all of
the angular dispersion is removed), both models predict the same results [15]. Similarly it has
been shown several times, that, when a pulse passes through a single angular disperser, the
chirp of a Gaussian beam increases nonlinearly with propagation distance away from the
disperser, while that of a plane wave increases linearly [8]. Though compressors are very
commonly used, it seems that there is still more to learn about how they affect ultrashort
pulses.
Usually, the diffraction integral is used to investigate the propagation dependence of an
ultrashort pulse, but this approach is quite complex making it difficult to use to understand
how compressors work and why they effect plane waves differently than they do Gaussian
beams [15]. Actually, the evolution of the chirp is entirely caused by a spatio-spectral phase
(x,z,) that is added to the pulse by the compressor (since the chirp is defined as the second
order derivative of the pulses spectral phase with respect to angular frequency) [19].
Therefore, it is sufficient to determine the chirps evolution by calculating this phase change
that is acquired by the pulse due to propagation through the compressor.
In this paper, we have derived expressions for the propagation dependence of the
frequency chirp of a femtosecond Gaussian laser pulse after passing through each element of a
classical four-element compressor. These expressions were derived by calculating the phase
change acquired by the Gaussian beam after propagating through each element of the
compressor. These calculations reveal the physical mechanism by which chirp is acquired by
an ultrashort pulse in a pulse compressor. As the effects of misalignment of the dispersive
elements are very complex [2022], we consider only perfectly aligned compressors in this
paper.
2. Phase acquired by a Gaussian pulse in a compressor
A steadily propagating electromagnetic field in free space is governed by the scalar
approximation of the Helmholtz equation. The plane wave is the simplest solution to this
equation, and the Gaussian beam is also a special solution which is obtained if the slowly
varying amplitude (SVA) approximation is made. The Gaussian beam is a very good model
for realistic laser beams, so it is frequently adopted for modeling optics experiments. The
phase of a Gaussian beam propagating in free space is given by [23]:

2
1
( , ) tan ( ).
2 ( )
R
kr z
r z kz
R z z

= + (1)
where k is the wave-number, z is the propagation distance away from the beam waist on the
axis, r = (x
2
+ y
2
)
1/2
is the distance from the z axis, R(z) = z + z
R
2
/z is the radius of curvature of
the wave front, z
R
= kw
o
2
/2 is the Rayleigh range of the Gaussian beam, and w
0
is the beam
waist size. Equation (1) describes the phase shift of a Gaussian beam at the point (r, z) relative
to the original point (0, 0). In this equation, the first term is the geometrical phase shift which
is the same as the phase of a plane wave. The second term represents a phase shift relative to
the radial position. This is due to the finite beam size of the Gaussian beam. No such term
exists in the expression for plane waves because they are infinite in space. The third term is
the Gouy phase shift which is relative to the geometrical phase shift, and is also unique to a
Gaussian beam [23].

Fig. 1. (a) A classical pulse compressor, which consists of four identical prisms (or other
angular dispersers, such as gratings). (b) Optical path diagram of a femtosecond laser pulse
passing through a classical pulse compressor. For two adjacent elements, the spacings are L1,
L2, L3, respectively. Due to angular dispersion, in the system, different spectral components
have different paths. Taking the entrance vertices (O1 ~O4) of each element as the original
point, four reference distances can be established: they are x1-z1 through x4-z4. The distances for
any spectral component are defined as x1-z1 through x4 -z4 . In this figure, the dashed line
between the second and third element is the wave front of the pulse. When the alignment is
perfect, 1 = 3 and L1 = L3. BW is the beam waist, and d is the distance between the beam
waist and the first dispersive element.
As shown in Fig. 1, in order to study the chirp evolution of a femtosecond Gaussian laser
pulse propagating through a pulse compressor, we first need to define all of the system
parameters. For a single angular dispersion element, the deflection angle of a femtosecond
laser pulse after passing through the element is described by [15,16]:
( , ) .

= + = +

(2)
where is the angular magnification, is the angular dispersion, is the angle of incidence,
and is the frequency. For the four elements in a perfectly aligned pulse compressor, the
parameters must obey the following equations [15]:

1
2 2
1 1
1
, ,

= = (3)

3 1 3 1
, , = = (4)

3
4 4
3 3
1
, .

= = (5)
where the subscripts on each parameter correspond to the number of the element. We will use
and to denote these parameters for the first element. It is assumed that the angular
dispersion only occurs in the x-z plane and the Gaussian beam still follows the propagation
rules of free space in the y direction. In this case, we omit the information for the y axis in
order to simplify our calculation. When an arbitrary spectral component of a femtosecond
Gaussian laser pulse passes through the first element and arrives at the point (x
1
, z
1
), the
waist position is at a distance d/
2
+ z
1
relative to the apex of the element for the opposite
propagation direction for which the equivalent Rayleigh range is z
R1
= z
R
/
2
, where d is the
distance between the beam waist and the first dispersive element [18]. Thus the phase
expression for the Gaussian beam can be written as:

2 2
2 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 2
1 1
/
( , , ) ( / ) tan ( ).
2 ( / )
R
kx d z
x z k d z
z R d z

+
= + +
+
(6)
In the same way, when an arbitrary spectral component passes through the second, third
and fourth element and arrives at the locations (x
2
, z
2
), (x
3
, z
3
) and (x
4
, z
4
), the
corresponding waist position is equivalent to d +
2
z
1
+ z
2
, d/
2
+ z
1
+ z
2
/
2
+ z
3,
and d +
2
z
1
+ z
2
+
2
z
3
+ z
4
with respect to the apex of the first element for the opposite
propagation direction, and the corresponding Rayleigh ranges are of z
R2
= z
R
,z
R3
= z
R
/
2
, and
z
R4
= z
R
. Then the corresponding phase expressions for the Gaussian beam are:

2 2
2 1 2 1 2
2 2 2 1 2 2
2 1 2
( , , ) ( ) tan ( ),
2 ( )
R
kx d z z
x z k d z z
z R d z z

+ +
= + + +
+ +
(7)

2
2 2 3
3 3 3 1 2 3 2 2
1 2 3
2 2
1 1 2 3
3
( , , ) ( / / )
2 ( / / )
/ /
tan ( ),
R
kx
x z k d z z z
R d z z z
d z z z
z
= + + + +
+ + +
+ + +
(8)

2
2 2 4
4 4 4 1 2 3 4 2 2
1 2 3 4
2 2
1 1 2 3 4
4
( , , ) ( )
2 ( )
tan ( ).
R
kx
x z k d z z z z
R d z z z z
d z z z z
z
= + + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
(9)
where the subscripts of the phase functions represent the number of elements. From the above
analysis, we obtain the spatio-spectral phase of the Gaussian beam at any position when
passing through a pulse compressor. The corresponding frequency chirp can be obtained by
calculating the second order derivative of the phase with respect to the frequency .
3. Chirp evolution of a Gaussian pulse in a compressor
As shown in Fig. 1, after passing through the first angular dispersion element, each spectral
component of the femtosecond laser pulse is separated in space, and propagates a different
distance. The reference spectral component propagates a distance z
1
, while an arbitrary
spectral component propagates a distance z
1
, which can be related to z
1
using the angle
1
.
The relevant formulae are [17]:

1 1 1 1 1
cos sin , z z x
= + (10)

1 1 1 1 1
sin cos . x z x
= + (11)
And the corresponding first and second order derivatives are:

'
1
0, z
= (12)

2
'' 1
1 1
,
d
z z
d
| |
=
|
\
(13)

' 1
1 1
,
d
x z
d
= (14)

2
'' 1
1 1 2
.
d
x z
d
= (15)
where = d
1
/d is the angular dispersion introduced by the element. The second order
derivative of the expression for
1
with respect to spectral frequency (which describes the
introduced chirp of the Gaussian beam passing through the first element) can then be obtained
as follows:

2 2 2 2
'' 2 2 1 1 1
1 1 1 2 2 2 2
1 1
( )
( ) [1 ].
( / ) ( )
G
R
k z z d z
z k z k z
R d z d z z

+
= + =
+ + +
(16)
Comparing the above expression with the phase function
1
(Eq. (6)), we can see that the
first term is the chirp introduced by the geometrical phase shift, which is negative. The second
term is the chirp introduced by the radially dependent phase term which has an x- coupling,
and this is positive. The chirp introduced by the Guoy phase shift is usually far less than the
first two terms, so for simplicity we have left it out of Eq. (16) and will neglect it for the rest
of our discussion.
After the pulse has passed through the second element (which is anti-parallel with the first
element and separated by a distance L
1
), the angular dispersion is totally eliminated but
different spectral component of the pulse are still separated transversely in space, or spatial
chirp, and also the x- coupling term in the phase (wave front tilt dispersion) are present [24
28]. In this interval, the relevant distances are:

2 2
, z z const
= + (17)

2 2
. x x const
= + + (18)
where = L
1
is the spatial chirp present in the pulse before entering the second element.
Then the corresponding first and second derivatives of z
2
and x
2
with respect to can be
obtained as follows:

'
2
0, z
= (19)

''
2
0, z
= (20)

'
2 1
, x L
= (21)

''
2
0. x
= (22)
And thus the chirp of the pulse after passing through the second element is:

2 2
2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2
2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2
1 2 1 2
''
( ) 1
( ) [1 ].
( ) ( )
R
G
L d L z
z k L k L k L
R d L z d L z z

+ +
= + =
+ + + + +
(23)
Comparing Eq. (23) with the phase function
2
(Eq. (7)), we can see that the first term is
the chirp introduced by the geometrical phase shift, which is negative. As the second element
removes angular dispersion, no extra chirp will be introduced by the geometrical phase shift
after passing through the second element. The second term represents the frequency chirp
introduced by the radially dependent phase when the pulse travels the distance z
2
, which is
positive. Here we can see that though the angular dispersion has been eliminated after passing
through the second element, x- couplings, namely, spatial chirp and wave-front-curvature
dispersion are still present, and these combined with a changing beam spot size introduce
additional frequency chirp as the pulse propagates through this region of the compressor.
After the pulse has passed through the third element, angular dispersion is present again.
As shown in Fig. 1, the distance for any spectral component between the third and the fourth
elements is L
3
cos
3
[2], and thus the relevant formulae are:

3 3 3 3 3
cos sin , z z x
= (24)

3 3 3 3 3 3
( )sin cos . x L z x
= + (25)
Then the first and second derivatives of z
3
and x
3
with respect to frequency can be
obtained as follows:

'
3
0, z
= (26)

2
'' 3
3 3
,
d
z z
d
| |
=
|
\
(27)

' 3
3 3 3
( ) ,
d
x L z
d
= (28)

2
'' 3
1 3 3 2
( ) .
d
x L z
d
= (29)
where the angular dispersion introduced by the third element is d
3
/d = -. Also, the chirp of
the femtosecond laser pulse after passing through the third element is:

( )
( )
( )
2 2 2 2
3 1 3 3 3 2 2
1 2 3
2 2 2
1 2 3 2 2 2 2
1 3 3 3 2
2 2 2
1 2 3
''
1
( ) ( )
( / / )
.
R
G
z k L k z k L z
R d a L L z
d L L z
k L k z k L z
d L L z z

= +
+ + +
+ + +
= +
+ + + +
(30)
Comparing the above expression with the phase function
3
in Eq. (8), we see that the first
term is the chirp from the geometrical phase term acquired from propagating between the first
and the second elements, which is negative. The second term is the chirp from the geometrical
phase shift due to propagation between the third and the fourth elements, which is also
negative. Finally, the third term is the chirp introduced by the radially dependent phase shift
due to propagation through the same distance, which is positive. If the propagation distance z
3

= L
3
, i.e. when the pulse arrives at the entrance of the fourth element, the chirp from the last
term becomes zero.
Provided that z
3
= L
3
, and the angular dispersion from the first and third elements are equal
and opposite, after the pulse has passed through the fourth element, all of the spectral
components overlap transversely in space (i.e. no spatiotemporal couplings are present), and
both the angular dispersion and all other spatiotemporal couplings have been removed, giving:

4 4
, z z
= (31)

4 4
. x x
= (32)
So, after passing through the fourth element, neither the geometrical phase shift nor the
radially dependent phase shifts introduce any chirp and then we get [15]:

'' 2 2 2
4 1 3 1
( ) 2 .
G
z k L k L k L = = (33)
In this formula we can see that the final frequency chirp of the Gaussian beam is the same
as that of a plane wave after passing through the pulse compressor. This final expression
depends only on the geometrical phase shift and has no dependence on the radially dependent
phase shift. From the above analysis of the chirp of the Gaussian beam, we can easily obtain
the corresponding chirp of the plane wave by considering only the geometrical phase term. As
the term describing the geometrical phase shift of the Gaussian beam is equal to the phase
term of the plane wave, the chirp introduced by this term is the corresponding chirp of the
plane wave:

'' 2
1 1
( ) ,
P
z k z = (34)

'' 2
2 1
( ) ,
P
z k L = (35)

'' 2 2
3 1 3
( ) ,
P
z k L k z = (36)

'' 2
4 1
( ) 2 .
P
z k L = (37)
From the above analysis, we can see that, for the Gaussian beam, the chirp introduced by
the geometrical phase term is negative while that introduced by the radially dependent phase
shift is positive at any position after passing through the element; it becomes zero when no -
x coupling terms are present in the phase. Also, the radially dependent phase shift in the phase
function of the Gaussian beam is the fundamental reason for the difference between the
frequency chirp of a Gaussian beam and plane wave when passing through the classical pulse
compressor. The frequency chirp evolution of the Gaussian beam and plane wave over the
whole propagation process are shown in Fig. 2, using the parameters = 1, = 0.1 rad/m, d
= z
R
= L
1
= L
2
= L
3
= 1 m.

Fig. 2. Comparison of the chirp evolution of a Gaussian beam (green) and plane wave (black)
when passing through a 4-dispersive element pulse compressor. The red arrows in the figure
show the difference in the two models.
As shown in Fig. 2, though the frequency chirp evolution of Gaussian beams is different
from that of plane waves, the final result is the same for both models. In the following section,
we provide a detailed analysis of the physical mechanism of this phenomenon.
4. Comparison of the Gaussian beam and plane wave models for a pulse compressor
Here we compare the propagation dependent frequency chirps predicted by the two models in
order to better understand their differences. For the plane wave model, in each interval of
propagation, the following expressions are obtained:

2
1 1
''
( ) ,
P
z k z = (38)

2
''
( ) 0,
P
z = (39)

'' 2
3 3
( ) ,
P
z k z = (40)

''
4
( ) 0.
P
z = (41)
where the zs are the corresponding propagation intervals as shown in Fig. 1. We can see that
the frequency chirp of the plane waves only changes in the interval where the angular
dispersion is nonzero (e.g. after the pulse has passed through the first and third elements, as
shown in Fig. 2). The corresponding chirp evolution of the Gaussian beam in each interval is:

2 2
2 1 1
1 1 2 2 2
1
''
( )
( ) [1 ],
( )
R
G
z d z
z k z
d z z

+
=
+ +
(42)

2 2
2 2 2 1 2 1
2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 2 1
2 2 2
1 2 2
1 2 1
''
( ) ( )
( ) [ ]
( ) ( )
1 1
[ ],
( ) ( )
R R
G
d L z d L
z k L
d L z z d L z
k L
R d L z R d L

+ + +
=
+ + + + +
=
+ + +
(43)

2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 1 2 3 1 1 2
3 3 3 3 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 2 3 1 2
2 2 2 2 2 3 3
3 1 2 2 2
3 1 2 1 2 3
''
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
1 1
[ ( ) ],
( ) ( )
R R
G
d L L z L d L L
z k z k L z k L
d L L z z d L L z
L z
k z k L
L R d L L R d L L z

+ + + + +
= +
+ + + + + + +
=
+ + + + +
(44)

4
''
( ) 0.
G
z = (45)
In contrast to the plane wave model, for Gaussian beams, the chirp changes as the pulse
propagates even when the angular dispersion is zero. When the angular dispersion is zero but
the x- coupling in the phase is nonzero, the frequency chirp of the Gaussian beam still
changes along the propagation distance (as shown in Fig. 2, after the pulse has passed through
the second element). After the pulse has passed through the first and third elements (where the
angular dispersion is not zero), the changes in the frequency chirp consist of two parts; one is
introduced by the geometrical phase shift (corresponding to the first term in Eqs. (42) and
(44)) and the other is due to the radially dependent phase shift (corresponding to the second
term in Eqs. (42) and (44)).
Calculating the difference in the chirp predicted by the two models over corresponding
intervals (Eq. (42) is substracted from Eq. (38), and, etc.), we get the following results:

2 2 2
1 1 2
1
''
1
( )
( )
,
PG
z k z
R d z

=
+
(46)

2 2 2
2 1 2 2
1 2 1
''
1 1
( ) ,
( ) ( )
PG
z k L
R d L z R d L

=
+ + +
(
(

(47)

2
2 2 2 3 3
3 1 2 2 2
3 1 2 1 2 3
''
1 1
( ) ,
( ) ( )
PG
L z
z k L
L R d L L R d L L z

=
+ + + + +
(
| |
(
|
(
\

(48)

4
''
( ) 0.
PG
z = (49)
From the above equations we can clearly see that over any propagation interval, the
fundamental reason for the difference between frequency chirp of the Gaussian beam and
plane wave is due to the radially dependent, or the x- coupling term in the phase of the
Gaussian beam.
As shown in Fig. 2, (A) In the interval 0-L
1
, the chirp of the Gaussian beam increases less
rapidly than that of the plane wave because the radially dependent phase shift introduces a
positive change in the chirp (see Eq. (46)). (B) In the interval L
1
to L
2
, there is no further
change of the chirp of the plane wave while the chirp of Gaussian beam continues to change,
due to the spatiotemporal couplings in the radially dependent term. However, these changes
can be either positive or negative, as determined by the parameters of the beam itself (such as
the Rayleigh length z
R
) and the propagation distances (such as d, L
1,
L
2
) (see Eq. (47)). (C) In
the interval L
2
to L
3
, the chirp of the Gaussian beam increases faster than that of the plane
wave, because in this interval, different spectral components of the pulse show a tendency to
converge, that is to say, the spatial chirp is becoming smaller, which is the opposite of what
happens between 0 to L
1
(where the beam is diverging and the spatial chirp is increasing), so
the chirp introduced by radially dependent phase shift becomes negative (see Eq. (48)). When
the propagation distance z
3
= L
3
(at the entrance of the fourth element), the changes in the
difference of the chirp between the Gaussian beam and the plane wave in this interval offsets
their difference in the intervals 0 to L
1
and L
1
to L
2
exactly, leading to the final chirp of
Gaussian beam and plane wave being the same. Actually, Eqs. (46) ~(48) also reveal this rule:

1 2 3
'' '' ''
( ) ( ) ( ) 0.
PG PG PG
L L L + + = (50)
Thus, for both the Gaussian beam and the plane wave, the final chirps are the same. The
fundamental reason for this difference is that the Gaussian beam has an x- coupling (or a
spatiotemporal coupling) in its phase which introduces some chirp, and this term is absent in
the phase of plane wave.
If the spot size of the Gaussian beam increases, or if the Rayleigh range is longer and the
beam is better collimated, the propagation dependence of the chirp predicted by the Gaussian
beam is closer to that of the plane wave, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. The chirp evolution of a femtosecond laser pulse when passing through the pulse
compressor. The Gaussian beam (green line) compared with a plane wave (black line). Each of
the subfigures has different Rayleigh range: from (a) to (d), they are 1m, 3m, 5m, and 10m,
respectively. The other parameters are the same as those of Fig. 2. When the Rayleigh range
increases, the chirp evolution of the Gaussian beam becomes closer to that of a plane wave.
This phenomenon is also shown in Eqs. (46) ~(49) where you can see that if the Gaussian
beam is well collimated, that is to say, d, L
1
, L
2
, L
3
<< z
R
,(which is called the approximate
condition for good collimation [15,16]),
''
0
PG
= . Also, we can see that the chirp changes of
the Gaussian beam can be either positive (see subfigures b and c) or negative (see figure a) in
the interval L
1
to L
2
, and depends on the parameters of the Gaussian beam and the propagation
distance.
5. Discussion
Using the Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction integral, we can obtain the complete electric field of
the pulse while propagating through compressor which will tell us not only the frequency
chirp, but also the spatial chirp, pulse front tilt, spot size, and etc [68,15,16]. However, for
studying the evolution of the chirp, an analysis of the whole electric field, is not necessary, as
the chirp is directly determined by the phase shift of the laser pulse. In this paper, we used a
much simpler and more straightforward method, by analyzing the phase acquired by a
Gaussian pulse due to propagation through a compressor, and directly calculated the second
order derivative of the phase with respect to the spectral frequency . This gives us the chirp
evolution of the pulse when passing through a pulse compressor. We found the x- coupling
term in the phase of the Gaussian beam to be the fundamental reason for its chirp evolution
inside a pulse compressor being different from that of a plane wave.
When the spot size of the Gaussian beam increases, or when it is well collimated and has a
longer Rayleigh range, the chirp acquired by the Gaussian beam is much closer to that of a
plane wave, as shown in Fig. 3. The reason for this is that the radially dependent phase term of
the Gaussian beam becomes less significant (i.e. the curvature of the wave front increases). If
the Rayleigh range is long enough, no radially dependent phase term exists, leading to
equivalent chirps for the Gaussian beam and the plane wave models. Although the spot size of
the Gaussian beam has no influence on the final chirp after propagation through the 4th
dispersive element (assuming a well aligned compressor), it could significantly influence the
value of the chirp when the pulse is passing through a single angular dispersion element, a
pair of elements in a single-pass structure, or when the pulse compressor is not perfectly
aligned. This of course affects the duration of the output laser pulse.
Another phenomenon worth noting is that for Gaussian beams, as long as spatiotemporal
couplings exist (i.e. x- cross terms), even though there is no angular dispersion, an additional
frequency chirp will be introduced as the pulse propagates. Martinez implied such a
phenomenon but provided no explanation [15]. In essence, propagation of an ultrashort pulse
in the presence of spatiotemporal couplings is a three-dimensional (x, and z) effect, and it
causes the spatial terms of the Gaussian to mix with the frequency terms, and phase terms are
transferred to the intensity (and vice versa). Namely, the first dispersive element introduces
angular dispersion which propagation changes into spatial chirp, wave-front-curvature
dispersion (or pulse front tilt, if viewed in the time domain), frequency chirp, and others. And
once the angular dispersion vanishes after the second prism, there are still coupling terms
remainingthe spatial chirp and the wave-front-tilt dispersionso propagation again
transfers these terms into frequency chirp. Specificially it is the radially dependent phase term
in the Gaussian model that allows for this mixing, and if this term vanishes, then the
frequency chirp of Gaussian beam will be the same as that of plane wave (such as after the
pulse has passed through the fourth element, which also makes this term vanish). The spatial
chirp and frequency chirp are commonly regarded as independent parameters; the spatial chirp
describes the transverse separation (perpendicular to the propagation direction) of different
spectral components while the frequency chirp describes the longitudinal delay (along the
propagation direction). Here we again illustrate that this is not the case [2628], and we have
shown that these two quantities can be coupled by propagation.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, we studied the chirp evolution of a Gaussian beam when passing through a
classical pulse compressor by directly calculating the acquired spatio-spectral phase.
Compared with the chirp evolution predicted by the plane wave model, we found that a
spatiotemporal coupling or an x- dependent term in the phase of the Gaussian beam is the
fundamental reason for the difference in these two models predictions for pulse compressors.
For a Gaussian beam, the existence of spatiotemporal couplings also introduces an additional
frequency chirp even when no angular dispersion exists. If the Gaussian beam is well
collimated, the frequency chirp evolution is closer to that of a plane wave after passing
through the angular dispersion elements. This work provides a deeper understanding of the
physical mechanism of the frequency chirp evolution when a laser pulse passes through a
classical pulse compressor. Our analysis will also be helpful for optimization of dispersion
compensation schemes in many applications of femtosecond laser pulses.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) (30900331,
30927001), and Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in
University.

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Evolution of the frequency chirp of Gaussian

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