Analytical evaluation of the temporal focal shift for arbitrary pulse shapes

In this letter, we analyze the propagation of linearly chirped arbitrary-shaped light pulses through a parabolic dispersive medium to derive an analytical formula of assessing the location of the transverse plane where the pulse root-mean-square width is minimum. Closed form expressions for compressed pulses, which are independent of the input pulse shape, are demonstrated. In this way, we demonstrate that both the relative temporal focal shift and the minimum pulsewidth are solely determined by two factors, the temporal equivalent of the Fresnel number of the geometry and the pulse quality factor, i.e., the temporal analogue of the spatial M/sup 2/ beam quality factor. Some examples are discussed.