Róbert Szipőcs (HUN-REN Wigner Reserach Institute for Physics)

Understanding phase properties of multilayer dielectric mirrors: a long but exciting road to the first chirped mirror design

Abstract: According to Springer graduate textbook in physics entitled „Ultrafast Lasers”, it was the invention of a „chirped mirror” by Szipőcs et al that began a new era in ultrashort pulse generation. In my talk I will summarize background knowledge on optical multilayer dielectric mirrors previously used in ultrafast laser systems, my theoretical considerations and corresponding computer modelling work on dielectric mirrors with second-order phase properties and mention a few of my experimental results finally resulting in the first practical chirped mirror design at the Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics prior to my first trip to the Technical University of Vienna in July of 1993. Since then, chirped mirrors became key components in ultrafast lasers including mirror-dispersion-controlled oscillators, chirped-pulse-amplification systems, pulse compressors or broadly tunable 100-fs pulse lasers or optical parametric oscillators, which oscillators are the workhorses for nonlinear microscopy

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