Dispersive effects in the reflection of femtosecond optical

pulses from broadband dielectric mirrors

Paolo Laporta and Vittorio Magni

The dispersive effects of high-reflectivity broadband mirrors on femtosecond optical pulses have been ana-
lyzed for three different multilayer structures. In each case the high-reflectivity zone can be divided into
two different regions symmetrically located around the mirror central frequency: high-dispersion and low-
dispersion regions. The calculated temporal behavior of the reflected pulse shows high distortion of the
pulse profile, a frequency chirp, and a broadening as high as a factor of 5.6, due to a single reflection, within
the high-dispersion region. The use of these types of mirror should therefore be strictly limited to their low-
dispersion side.

1. Introduction observed following reflection of 16-fsec pulses from

In the last few years the duration of femtosecond
optical pulses has decreased down to values of -50 fsec
for pulses generated by the colliding-pulse mode-locking
technique.1- 3 Moreover, by means of compression
techniques in optical fibers outside the cavity- 7 further
reductions have been achieved and pulses as short as 12
fsec have recently been produced.8 Due to the ex-
tremely short pulse durations, the intensity shape and
phase of the pulse can be greatly modified by the effects
of group velocity dispersion, in particular by those
produced by reflection from dielectric mirrors used
inside and outside the laser cavity. Such mirrors can
be either /4 narrowband reflectors or broadband
multilayers with a high-reflectivity zone extending over
most of the visible spectrum.
In an earlier work9 we analyzed the effects of X/4di-
electric mirror dispersion in femtosecond dye-laser
cavities. In that case, the mirror was described, in the
frequency domain, by means of a transfer function with
a constant amplitude and a quadratic phase term. In
the case of broadband multilayers, this approach is, in
general, not possible due to significant phase variations
within the high-reflectivity zone of the mirror
throughout the bandwidth of the pulse.10 Recently,
pronounced pulse distortion effects were experimentally
The authors are with Centro di Elettronica Quantistica e
Strumentazione Elettronica del CNR, Istituto di Fisica del Politec-
nico, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy.
Received 18 December 1984.
0003-6935/85/132014-07$02.00/0.
© 1985 Optical Society of America.
broadband mirrors consisting of two quarterwave
stacks. 1 1
In this paper we present a detailed analysis of the
effects of a single reflection of a femtosecond optical
pulse from a broadband multilayer with respect to three
different mirror structures. In each case we show that
the high-reflectivity zone can be divided into two in-
tervals characterized by different behavior of the phase
shift (X): a low-dispersion region and a high-dis-
persion region, which lie on opposite sides in relation to
the central frequency of the mirror. Taking into ac-
count the whole transfer function of the mirror (i.e., its
complex reflectivity), we have calculated, for a Gaussian
incident pulse, the broadening due to reflection as a
function of its carrier frequency and its duration.
Moreover, we have shown, in a few significant cases, the
time profile of the reflected pulse obtained by the fast
Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. While in the
low-dispersion region the pulse keeps its Gaussian shape
and exhibits only a slight broadening (as for a quarter-
wave multilayer near resonance), in the high-dispersion
region the pulse shows marked broadening, up to a
factor of -6, acquires a frequency chirp, and develops
one or more satellites. All these dispersive effects are
strongly dependent on carrier frequency and pulse
duration. Such types of mirrors should therefore def-
initely be avoided if the optical carrier of the pulse is
centered within the high-dispersion region,but they can
be used in the low-dispersion region in the same manner
as when dealing with standard quarterwave stacks.
11. Results and Discussion
Following our previous work,12 the reflection effects
of a femtosecond pulse from a broadband multilayer
have been analyzed in the frequency domain. The

2014 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 24, No. 13 / 1 July 1985

mirror has accordingly been described by means of a 6
transfer function with an intensity reflectivity R (w) and -o

a phase b(w). Due to significant variations of 4(X) L

4
across the pulse bandwidth, no approximations of 4(w) e9 2
have been made in this case. The reflected pulse is then
obtained by transforming the incident pulse in the 0
frequency domain, multiplying it by the mirror's 6
transfer function, and transforming it back into the time
domain by means of the FFT algorithm. -U
a 4 Id I b

The complex reflectivity coefficient r(co) was calcu- L

lated using a general method based on a matrix for- e 2

I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

mulation' 3 and ignoring the small material dispersion 0

due to the layer thickness. We have considered three
4 5
different structures for the multilayer' " : (i) two 6
quarterwave stacks superimposed, centered at two 00 4
different wavelengths; (ii) a single stack made of a series L

of alternating high and low refractive-index layers with e 2

the optical thickness varying in geometric progression, I I
and (iii) a single stack, as in the previous case, with layer- VI
0.7 0.8 0.9 . 1.2 1.3
optical thickness varying in arithmetic progression. For co
the sake of simplicity, we shall hereafter indicate these
three multilayers as structures 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Fig. 1. Mirror phase shift 4' as a function of the normalized fre-
In the case of structure 1, the central frequency of the quency w/co. (a) Structure 1,two quarterwave stacks with slightly
overlapping high-reflectivity zones on glass substrate: [A] [0.89H]-
mirror, coo,has been taken as the average value of the 9
[0.89L 0.89H]9[L] [1.14H 1.14L1 [1.14H1 [SI. (b) Structure 2,
resonance frequencies of the two stacks; in the other two thirty-five-layer geometric progression stack on glass substrate:
cases, the central frequency is that correspondingto the 7 6 15 1 6
[A] [q HI[q L] [q HI ... [qHI][LI [q HI . . . [q15HI [q' LI-
optical thickness of the central layer of the stack. [q-
17
H][S]. The common ratio q is equal to 0.985. (c) Structure 3,
Before proceeding with our analysis, we should note

l.
thirty-five-layer arithmetic progression stack on glass substrate:
that, for a given structure and a fixed central multilayer [A][(1 - 17k)H][(1 - 16k)L][(1 - 15k)H] ... [(1 - k)H] [LI[(1 + k)H]
frequency, two different mirrors can be made, reversing ... [(1 + 15k)H][(1 + 16k)L][(1 + 17k)H].[S]. Thecommondiffer-
the order of the two stacks in structure 1 or the sequence ence k is equal to 0.015. In each case, S denotes glass substrate (n,
of the layers in structures 2 and 3. Figures 1 and 2 show = 1.52) and A air. H and L are fihns of TiO2 (nH = 2.28) and SiO2 (nL
in both cases, for the three structures previously de- = 1.45), one quarterwave thick at central wavelength Xo= (27rco)/co
= 550 nm.
scribed, the phase shift as a function of the normalized
frequency co/wo. The structural parameters of the .- I
multilayers are specified in the figure captions. In the 6
same figures, the high-reflectivity zones (R ' 99.6%) are -o
also indicated by dashed lines. Inside the high-reflec-
0 4
L
f SAV~~~~~
lF
tivity zone, the only one of practical interest, two dif- e

I
2
ferent regions of phase behavior can be seen to be almost
0
symmetrically located around the central frequency: a
high-dispersion region, characterized by rapid phase
variations, and a low-dispersion region, characterized 0
6

4
<'Va~~~~~~~I
by a slow variation of the phase. It can be seen that the 0
reversal of the order of the two stacks [Figs. 1(a) and 2
2(a)] or of the sequence of the layers [Figs. 1(b) and 2(b) I X
and 1(c) and 2(c)] does not appreciably change the 0
high-reflectivity zone, but it does drastically influence 6
phase behavior. In fact, the high- and low-dispersion
regions are, in practice, reversed in relation to the cen- .0 4
tral frequency of the mirror.
2
This behavior can be understood from a physical
point of view, considering that, for low dispersion, a 0
monochromatic wave is primarily reflected by the outer 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3
layers, while for high dispersion (i.e., reflection from the WIW4

same mirror structure with reversed layer sequence) the Fig. 2. Phase shift 4)as a function of the normalized frequency W/Coo.
9
same wave is reflected mostly by the inner layers, twice 9
(a) Structure 1, [Al [1.14H] [1.14L 1.14H] [L] [0.89H 0.89L] [0.89H] [S].
7 6
crossing the outer layers and thus undergoing a much (b) Structure 2, [A][q'1 H1[q'- L][q'15H] ... [q'1HI[L[qHI
5 16 17
...

greater phase shift. In the low-dispersion region, the [q1 H][q LI[q Hj[Sj. (c) Structure 3, [A][(1 + 17k)H][(1 + 16k)-
L][(l + 15k)HI ... (1 + k)HJ[L][(l - k)H] [(1 - 15k)HI[(I -
phase remains approximately constant over the band- ...
17k)H][S]. Symbols have the same meaning as in Fig. 1.
width of a femtosecond optical pulse. The behavior of 16k)L][(1 -

1 July 1985 / Vol. 24, No. 13 / APPLIED OPTICS 2015

 Table1. MaximumAbsolute
Regions
Valuesof 4)"in Low-andHigh-Dispersion
of the High-Reflectivity
ZoneforDifferentTypesof Mirrors A(cw)= 5 a(t) exp(-iwt)dt.
2
(P;a(w) (sec ) Using the well-known property of the Fourier trans-
Low-dispersion High-dispersion
Multilayer structure region region
form, we can express first and second moments of the
pulse intensity distribution with the first and second
Two X/4 stacks 10 X 10-30 6300
Geometric progression
10-30
derivatives of G (W) evaluated for w = 0, namely,
120 X 10-30 850 X 10-30
Arithmetic progression 220 X 10-30
aStructural parameters of the multilayers are those specified in
800 X 10-30
t - _= I tl(t)dt =-[i~ [dG(w)]
E X 2rE d.
(] =0 =J
2wE
C
X
*()A(Dd
'
the caption of Fig. 1.
(2)
the mirror in this case can therefore be analyzed as in
Ref. 9; thus, we can expand 4*() to second order around t2_
=-X t2It)&=- 27E
1 [d 2G(w)]
the carrier frequency COL,namely, 4'(co) = 4 (CL) + E -a I dw 2 jw=o
4'(C)L)( - L) + 1/2(' (WL)(W The broadening
- czL)2 . = 1
f rX_ A*(.)A-(,)do,
and frequency chirp of the pulse depend only on ", 27rE - (3)
which becomes the only quantity that needs to be
specified to define the dispersive properties of the in which E indicates the pulse energy E = f- I(t)dt
mirror. The maximum values of " to be expected in
the low-dispersion side are shown for each structure in and the prime indicates differentiation. Note that t
Table I. The consequent broadening due to single re- represents the mean time position of the pulse and t 2
flection given by Ac/a- \ 2I" 2 /- 4
( being the rms value is related to the rms pulse width a by the relationship
of the pulse intensity) is very low even for extremely
short pulse durations and can thus be easily compen- a = (t 2 - j2)1/2 (4)
sated for by the pulse shortening effects of other cavity These general results can be made specific if we express
9 12 6
elements. "1 Broadband mirrors used on their low- the mirror transfer function H(w) as a pure phase term
dispersion side can thus be advantageously used inside H(w) = exp[iA(w)], which can certainly be assumed
a laser cavity; Eq. (3) in Ref. 9 can also be used to eval- within the high-reflectivity zone. By replacing A(co)
uate the steady-state duration of the laser pulse. We in Eqs. (2) and (3) by the product of the Fourier trans-
note, in particular, that structure 1 presents the lowest form of the incident pulse Ai (o) times H(co),the fol-
value of " (see Table I). lowing expressions are finally obtained:
On the other hand, this approach can no longer be
used in analyzing the high-dispersion region of broad- -tr = -ti - 2 1E J Ai(W)1
24)(co+ OL)dW, (5)
band mirrors, especiallyfor extremely short pulses, due
to the marked variations of b and " across the band-
width of the pulse. Moreover, for the same reasons, one t= 7 + 1 X : IAi(.)I 2
4)'2 (W + tCL)dW, (6)
would expect both the time delay of the reflected pulse in which the indices i and r indicate the quantities re-
and the broadening to become strongly dependent on lated to the incident and reflected pulses, respectively.
the position of the carrier frequency of the pulse in If the electric field of the incident pulse has a Gaussian
relation to the central frequency of the mirror. To shape a(t) = a exp[-t2 /(4o-1)],Eqs. (5) and (6) can be
evaluate the dispersive effects of the multilayer, in this further simplified by expanding dI(w + OL) up to the
case, the output pulse shape and the frequency chirp nth order around L obtaining, for the delay t and for
have to be calculated with the FFT algorithm, taking the rms width ar of the reflected pulse [seeEq. (4)], the
into account the exact phase behavior across the pulse following expressions:
bandwidth. However, merely for purposes of deter-
mining the time delay and broadening of the reflected ir = (@ + + 28 4+ ) ' (7)
pulse, interesting pieces of information can be obtained (2 1 4/U2 1 1 //V 5 4/v2 \1/2
with the following approach.
amplitude of the pulse described by e(t) = a(t) exp-
For an electric-field
4
--i +--
32 4
4)'2
- 16 - ci +---+..A,
a
768
(8) 6

(iWLt),the intensity I(t) can be expressed using the

autocorrelation theorem for the Fourier integral. in which the phase derivatives are calculated for OL.
Thus, It should be noted that the time delay depends only on
the odd-order derivatives, while the pulse duration
1(t) = e(t)12 = - ) G(w) exp(icut)dw. (1) depends on all-order derivatives except the first one.
(2w)2 _ Higher-order contributions, however, may become
In Eq. (1), G(co)is the autocorrelation function of the important in both cases, only for very small pulse du-'
Fourier transform of a (t) given by rations.
In the following,to discuss some practical examples,
G(w) = A*( ')A(w + )dc', we shall consider the structures shown in Fig. 1 and
assume the central frequency of the mirror to corre-
where the asterisk indicates complex conjugation, and spond, in each case, to 550 nm. In this case, the mirror
A( ) is defined as can be used both to reflect the light of the pump source

2016 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 24, No. 13 / 1 July 1985

 80 20
(a) 5 4000
60 15

4
40 0 UL
3 0-
_ 1l5 fa e
20 5 -4000

0 2.6
40 20 (b) 800
(b) 2.2
30 .S f. I5 400 e
-u Is 1.8 I - -
I1
10. \
v
20
-,~ e 1.4
11~~..IS f. -400 ~
10 5
I fc s f.
-800
0 2.6
40 20 800
2.2 II (c) -
30 15 I'
400
b 1.8 R
_U - I I
In 20 10 L 1 .4 I f.
0
'I/

e _400
10 5 [ I . - S -

-11.1
0 0 0.8 0.9 1 I.1 1 .2
0.8 0.9 I I .1 1 .2 (l)L / )

( / o Fig. 4. Broadening a,/ai of the reflected pulse for two different in-
Fig. 3. Time delay of the reflected pulse for two different incident cident pulse durations (FHWM) as a function of the normalized
pulse durations (FHWM) as a function of the normalized carrier carrier frequency CWL/WOO (solid lines) in the case of mirror structures
frequency WL/WO (solid lines) in the case of mirror structures in Fig. in Fig. 1: (a) structure 1; (b) structure 2; (c) structure 3. The second
1: (a) structure 1; (b) structure 2; (c) structure 3. The mirror phase derivatives of mirror phase shifts are also shown (dashed lines).
shifts 4)shown in Fig. 1 are also plotted as continuous functions for
comparison purposes (dashed lines).

(argon laser or doubled Nd:YAG laser) and that of the
femtosecond laser (at present tunable between 590 and
630 nm). Similar results would have been obtained in
considering the structures in Fig. 2, except that the
position of the high- and low-dispersion regions would
have been exchanged. By means of Eqs. (4)-(6) we
have therefore computed, for two different incident
durations' 7 (50 and 15 fsec), the time delay t and the
broadening -r/ai produced by a single reflection, as a
function of WoL/Wuo,across the whole high-reflectivity
zone of the mirror. Figures 3 and 4, respectively, show
these plots for the three mirror structures considered
in the case of the high-dispersion region lying on the red
side of the central frequency (see Fig. 1). We note that,
in this case, the tuning range of the femtosecond laser
falls just within the high-dispersion region. The phase
shifts introduced by the mirror and the second deriva-
tives of the phase shift are also shown, for comparison
purposes, in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively.
Let us first examine the curves in Fig. 3 for the time
delay tr. In all cases, the behavior of these curves can
be related to that of the corresponding phase shifts. In
fact, it can be seen that the maxima and minima for tr
correspond to the maxima and minima of the first de-
rivative of the phase, i.e., to the flex points of the phase
curve. This indicates that, in the expression given for
tr in Eq. (7), the first term is by far the most important
one. On the low-dispersion side, as expected when
phase behavior is examined, all curves take on an almost
constant value of a few femtoseconds. We also note
that the curves relating to a 15-fsec incident pulse are
similar to those for a 50-fsec incident pulse, but they
appear to be smoothed as if by a low-pass filter; this
effect is due to the much wider pulse bandwidth that
averages the phase variations.
As far as the pulse broadening is concerned, we note
that, while almost throughout the low-dispersion region
an approximately unitary value is reached (see also the
previous discussion of Figs. 1 and 2), extremely high
values (up to 5.6) of the broadening are present in the
high-dispersion regions. Moreover, these values un-
dergo substantial variations as a function of WL/CO. In
practice, therefore, the exact behavior of the mirror
becomes almost unpredictable. As regards broadening
in the case of a 50-fsec pulse, it can be easily associated
with )". In fact, the positions of the maxima for the
broadening correspond to those of the maxima or min-
ima of the second derivative of the phase, and the ratio
between different peak absolute values is the same for
both curves. In the case of a 15-fsecpulse, the consid-
erations previously advanced for the delay apply, i.e.,
the phase second derivative is now averaged over a much
wider bandwidth; moreover, as the pulse duration de-
creases, the contributions of the higher terms in Eq. (8)
become more substantial and increase the broad-
ening.

1 July 1985 / Vol. 24, No. 13 / APPLIED OPTICS 2017


S broadening is still present. This and the discussion of
3
0 4 80 128 160 200
PULSE WIDTH Cf.)
Fig. 5. Broadening /lai of the reflected pulse as a function of in-
cident pulse duration (FHWM) for structure 1 in Fig. 1. The carrier
frequency of the incident pulse is assumed to be that for which the
broadening is maximum (/ijwo( = 0.93,590 nm). An expanded view
is also shown.
As a final comment on Figs. 3 and 4, we may
the highest values for the delay of the reflected
fsec) as well as for its broadening (5.6-see
comparison purposes, the values of IDmaxin Table I)
within the high-dispersion region are those relating to
structure 1. On the other hand, structures 2 and 3 show
a high-dispersion region that, even if it produces less
dispersive effects, is nevertheless slightly wider and
extends somewhat on to the blue side of the mirror be-
hind its central frequency. Thus, structure 1, while
showing a less good dispersive behavior in the high-
dispersion region, is preferable if used on its low-dis-
persion side, as is also indicated by the much lower
values of (D1'ax
(see Table I).
The broadening ar/ai of the reflected pulse was also
investigated as a function of incident pulse duration.
Figure 5 shows this curve for a carrier frequency value
corresponding to the maximum broadening (OL =
93
0. co corresponding to -590 nm) for structure 1 in Fig.
1. It can be seen that, in this case, even for relatively
long pulse durations (100-150 fsec), a noticeable
Fig. 4 enable us to conclude that this type of mirror in
particular and all broadband mirrors in general, if used
on their high-dispersion side, should be carefully
avoided as reflectors for femtosecond pulses, both inside
and outside the laser cavity.
Finally, to obtain the pulse shape and the frequency
chirp of the reflected pulse, we applied the FFT algo-
rithm to retransform into the time domain the fre-
quency spectrum of the incident pulse, multiplied by
the whole transfer function of the mirror [i.e., by the
complex reflection coefficient r(w)]. The results are
obviously strongly dependent on the position of the
pulse carrier frequency in relation to the central fre-
quency of the mirror, and on the time width of the in-
cident pulse. In any case, while in the low-dispersion
note that region the pulse maintains a close approximation to its
pulse (85 Gaussian shape after reflection on the high-dispersion
also, for side, especially for the shortest pulses, increasingly high
pulse-shape distortions are observed. The curves in
Figs. 6(a), (b), and (c) show the calculated intensity
shapes of the reflected pulses in the cases of structures
1, 2, and 3, respectively, for an incident Gaussian pulse
of 15 fsec centered at t = 0 without frequency chirp.
For each structure, the carrier frequency of the inci-
dent pulse is assumed to be that for which the broad-
ening is maximum and is indicated in the caption of the
figure. The shapes of the pulse reflected from the
geometric progression and from the arithmetic pro-
gression stacks are almost identical [Figs. 6(b) and (c)]
and are less distorted than in the double quarterwave
stacks. In the latter case, Fig. 7 shows the shapes of
reflected pulses for the same incident pulse duration of

'0 18

3
I
I
15f.
ISm~
I-,
6 1 6 i 6

z I , I
I I
11
H

2
2 ~
I I
~I 2

-100 -50 8 so 100 ISO -188 -58 8 58 188 158 -100

TIME Cf.) TIME Cf.) TIME (f)

Fig. 6. Intensity shape I(t) of the reflected pulse as a function of time (solid lines): (a) structure 1 in Fig. 1, olJo = 0.93 (590 nm); (b) structure
2 in Fig. 1, WL/wO = 0.88 (625 nm); (c) structure 3 in Fig. 1, jL/@co = 0.89 (620 nm). The incident Gaussian pulses are plotted as dashed lines.
In each case, the carrier frequency of the incident pulse is assumed to be that for which the broadening is maximum.

2018 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 24, No. 13 / 1 July 1985

 I0 I10
3.
>
'I
6 6
2 2
5 I
-100 1I50 - I 00 -so
TIME Cfs)
Fig. 7. Intensity shape I(t) of the reflected pulse (solid lines) as a function of time in the case of structure 1 in Fig. 1 for three different incident
pulses: (a) FWHM = 15 fsec, COL/CO = 0.90 (611 nm); (b) FWHM = 30 fsec, WL/WO= 0.93 (590 nm); (c) FWHM = 50 fsec, WL/CO = 0.93 (590
nm). The corresponding incident Gaussian pulses are also plotted as dashed lines.
15 fsec but at a different value of WOL(WL/W0 = 0.90) [Fig.
7(a)], and for the same value of WL/Wo but for a longer
duration [30 and 50 fsec, Figs. 7(b) and (c)]. It may be
seen that the reflected pulse undergoes considerable
variations in shape as a function of the carrier frequency
within the high-dispersion region [Fig. 7(a)]. Moreover,
considerable distortions may still be present, even for
pulse durations much longer than 15 fsec [Figs. 7(b) and
(c)]. It should also be noted that, in the high-dispersion
region, the reflected pulse splits up into two or more
pulses. This feature becomes particularly evident in
structure 1 [see, for example, Fig. 7(a)] and can be
qualitatively explained by a physical picture of the re-
flection in the time domain. Thus we may consider two
X/4 stacks centered at two different wavelengths, such
as, for example, the structure in Fig. 7(a), with the first
stack centered at a higher frequency and an incident
pulse whose carrier frequency is red-shifted in relation
to the central frequency of the mirror. The pulse will
then be only partially reflected from the first stack,
producing a first reflected pulse centered around t = 0.
The transmitted part of the pulse, in turn, travels
toward the inner stack, is reflected back, and then
partially transmitted outside through the outer stack,
generating the second peak of reflected light. In the
same way, a fraction of the pulse continues to propagate
to and fro between the two stacks, generating subse-
quent satellites of decreasing amplitude. It should be
noted that the time spacing between the peaks of the
reflected pulses approximately corresponds to twice the
optical distance between the stack centers.
The instantaneous frequency shifts of such reflected
pulses is not linear with time, unlike when the phase is
given only by a quadratic term, and is either positive or
negative in the different satellites depending on the
position of the carrier frequency of the incident pulse
in relation to the central frequency of the mirror.
I0
. VI'I88 2 I
-100-50
_'
0
.\ .
50 188 150 200
l
0 so 100 150 200
TIME Ufs) TIME (f-)
The characteristics of broadband mirrors have also
been analyzed as a function of the angle of incidence and
of the ratio between the refractive indices of the layers.
The tilting of the mirror produces a shift along the fre-
quency axis of the whole high-reflectivity zone, without
appreciably changing the dispersive effects, except for
the fact that the extent of the low-dispersion region is
slightly decreased. In structure 1, a dip in the high-
reflectivity zone is also observed. Increasing the ratio
of the layer refractive indices enhances the dispersive
effects. As an example, structure 1 in Fig. 1(a) pro-
duces, with an index ratio nH/nL = 1.7 (MgF2 ,ZnS), a
maximum broadening '-7.1, which should be compared
with the value of 5.6 for the case considered in this paper
(nH/nL = 1.57).
Ill. Conclusions
Different types of broadband mirror have been in-
vestigated to evaluate their dispersive effects on a
femtosecond optical pulse. In each case, it has been
shown that, in the frequency domain, the high-reflec-
tivity zone of the mirror can be split into high-dispersion
and low-dispersion regions located on opposite sides of
the central frequency of the mirror. The characteristics
of the reflected pulse are therefore strongly dependent
on the position of the incident pulse carrier frequency
in relation to the central frequency of the mirror. Thus,
if the carrier frequency falls within the low-dispersion
region, the pulse undergoes only slight broadening, ac-
quiring a linear frequency chirp. In the other case,
within the high-dispersion region, the reflected pulse
undergoes much greater broadening and, especially for
very short pulse durations, significant distortions of its
shape, with the appearance, in some cases, of one or
more satellites. Moreover, even slight displacements
of the carrier frequency can, in this highly dispersive
1 July 1985 / Vol. 24, No. 13 / APPLIED OPTICS 2019
 part of the mirror, produce great variations in the shape
and in the duration of the reflected pulse.
The results obtained indicate that the broadband
mirrors cannot be used in their high-dispersion region
to reflect ultrashort light pulses propagating inside or
outside the laser cavity. On the other hand, they can
be used on their low-dispersion side, with dispersive
effects comparable with those of narrowband X/4 mir-
rors near resonance. In particular, structures made by
two suitably superimposed X/4 stacks, even if they
produce the strongest dispersive effects in the high-
dispersion region, still show the best overall behavior
on their low-dispersion side.
References
1. R. L. Fork, B. I. Greene, and C. V. Shank, "Generation of Optical
Pulses Shorter than 0.1 psec by Colliding Pulse Mode-Locking,"
Appl. Phys. Lett. 38, 671 (1981).
2. W. Dietel, J. J. Fontaine, and J.-C. Diels, "Intracavity Pulse
Compression with Glass: A New Method of Generating Pulses
Shorter than 60 fsec," Opt. Lett. 8, 4 (1983).
3. R. L. Fork, C. V. Shank, R. Yen, and C. A. Hirlimann, "Femto-
second Optical Pulses," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-19, 500
(1983).
4. H. Nakatsuka, D. Grischkowsky, and A. C. Balant, "Nonlinear
Picosecond-Pulse Propagation Through Optical Fibers with
Positive Group Velocity Dispersion," Phys. Rev. Lett. 47, 910
(1981).
5. C. V. Shank, R. L. Fork, R. Yen, R. H. Stolen, and W. Tomlinson,
"Compression of Femtosecond Optical Pulses," Appl. Phys. Lett.
40, 761 (1982).
6. B. Nikolaus and D. Grischkowsky, " 12X Pulse Compression Using
Optical Fibers," Appl. Phys. Lett. 42, 1 (1983).
7. A. M. Weiner, J. G. Fujimoto, and E. P. Ippen, "Compression and
MeetingsCalendarcontinuedfrompage1995
1986
September
8-12 6th Int. Symp. on Gas Flow & Chemical Lasers, Jerusalem
S. Rosenwaks, GCL-6,co International Ltd., P.O. Box
29313, Tel-Aviv 61292,Israel
14-19 Optical & Electro-Optical Eng. Symp., Cambridge
SPIE, P.O. Box 10, Bellingham, Wash. 98227
October
5-10 Optical & Electro-Optical Eng. Symp., Cambridge
SPIE, P.O. Box 10, Bellingham, Wash. 98227
8-10 4th Int. Conf. on Optical Fiber Sensors, Tokyo OSA
Mtgs. Dept., 1816 Jefferson P1., N.W., Wash., D.C.
20036
21-24 OSA Ann. Mtg., Los Angeles OSA Mtgs. Dept., 1816
Jefferson P1., N. W., Wash., D.C. 20036
26-31 Optics & Optoelectronics Symp., Cambridge SPIE, P.O.
Box 10, Bellingham, Wash. 98227
2020 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 24, No. 13 / 1 July 1985
Shaping of Femtosecond Pulses," in Technical Digest, Ultrafast
Phenomena Conference, (Optical Society of America, Wash-
ington, D.C., 1984), paper TuA4.
8. J.-M. Halbout and D. Grischkowsky, "12-fs Ultrashort Optical
Pulse Compression at a High Repetition Rate," Appl. Phys. Lett.
45, 1281 (1984).
9. S. De Silvestri, P. Laporta, and 0. Svelto, "Analysis of Quarter-
Wave Dielectric-Mirror Dispersion in Femtosecond Dye-Laser
Cavities," Opt. Lett. 2, 335 (1984).
10. S. De Silvestri, P. Laporta, and 0. Svelto, "Effects of Cavity
Dispersion on Femtosecond Mode-Locked Dye Laser," in Ul-
trafast Phenomena IV, D. H. Auston and K. B. Eisenthal, Eds.
(Springer, New York, 1984), pp. 23-26.
11. After the submission of our paper new experimental results on
this subject were published; A. M. Weiner, J. G. Fujimoto and E.
P. Ippen, "Femtosecond Time-Resolved Reflectometry Mea-
surements of Multiple-Layer Dielectric Mirrors," Opt. Lett. 10,
71 (1985).
12. S. De Silvestri, P. Laporta, and 0. Svelto, "The Role of Cavity
Dispersion in cw Mode-Locked Lasers," IEEE J. Quantum
Electron. QE-20, 533 (1984).
13. M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics (Pergamon, New York,
1970), pp. 51-70.
14. A. F. Turner and P. W. Baumeister, "Multilayer Mirrors with
High Reflectance Over an Extended Spectral Region," Appl. Opt.
5, 69 (1966).
15. H. A. Macleod, Thin Film Optical Filters (Adam Hilger, London,
1969), pp. 88-110.
16. M. S. Stix and E. P. Ippen, "Pulse Shaping in Passively Mode-
Locked Ring Dye Lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-19,
520 (1983).
17. The duration of the incident (Gaussian) pulse is given throughout
the paper as full width at half-maximum (FWHM), this being the
usual notation. The broadening is instead expressed as the ratio
between rms duration of incident and reflected pulses since, in
the case of distorted reflected pulses, the FWHM is no longer
meaningful.
26-31 33rd AVS Nat. Vacuum Symp., Baltimore AVS, 335E.
45th St., N.Y., N.Y. 10017
November
3-7 APS Division of Plasma Physics Mtg., Baltimore Amer.
Phys. Soc., 335 E. 45th St., N.Y., N. Y. 10017
10-13 5th Int. Congr. on Applications of Lasers & Electro-
Optics, Boston H. Lee, Laser Inst. of Am., 5151
Monroe St., Suite 118W, Toledo, Ohio 43623
1987
January
11-17 Optoelectronics & Laser Applications in Science & En-
gineering, Los Angeles SPIE, P.O. Box 10, Belling-
ham, Wash. 98227
19-22 Conf. on Optical Fiber Communication/Int. Conf. on
Integrated Optics & Optical Fiber Communication,
Reno OSA Mtgs. Dept., 1816 Jefferson Pl., N. W.,
Wash., D.C. 20036
March
15-20 Optics & Optoelectronics Tech. Symp. Southeast, Or-
lando SPIE, P.O. Box 10, Bellingham, Wash. 98227
continuedonpage2027