Acousto-optic dispersive delay line for high-resolution laser pulse shaping

Acousto-optic dispersive delay line with 4K Nyquist-limited resolution was designed and fabricated for high-definition ultrashort laser pulse shaping. The delay line was optimized for Ti:sapphire laser radiation supporting over 200 nm bandwidth with the transmission passband of 0.18 nm. Experimental assessment and applications of the delay line for time-domain ultrashort pulse modulation are discussed in the report. Arbitrary complex-valued spectral transmission functions of the delay line can be obtained using dispersive Fourier synthesis algorithm for RF waveforms. The results include programmable replication of transform limited femtosecond pulses in 3 ps delay range and time-domain chirped pulse modulation with sub-4-ps rise/fall time of pulse fronts.