Toward a terawatt-scale sub-10-fs laser technology

Powerful techniques for spectral broadening and ultrabroad-band dispersion control, which allow compression of high-energy femtosecond pulses to a duration of a few optical cycles, are analyzed. Spectral broadening in a gas-filled hollow fiber and compression by chirped mirrors with high-energy 20-fs input pulses are presented. Using 1-mJ seed pulses we have demonstrated the generation of 0.5-mJ 5-fs pulses at 0.8-/spl mu/m and 1-kHz repetition rate. General design criteria to scale the compression technique toward the terawatt level are presented.