Breakthroughs in Photonics 2014: Spatiotemporal Focusing: Advances and Applications

Exploiting the characteristics of spatially chirped ultrafast pulses has been an increasingly active area of research. In this paper, we review the developments in the past year of the microscopy, materials processing, and micromachining fields, where the spatiotemporal structure of these beams is important. We also summarize progress in theoretical and experimental work to better control and characterize spatially chirped beams.