Higher order dispersion control in CPA lasers

Summary form only given. The total dispersion of a femtosecond chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system has to be compensated for to a high order to obtain transform limited pulses with high temporal contrast. In addition, the necessary amount of dispersive optics delivering the beam to the target varies by experiment to experiment, so the existing techniques capable for exact phase compensation are either unable to fit the dispersion to the varied environment. We propose a new technique to flexibly engineer the dispersion of a bulk medium to a theoretically arbitrary high order. Inserting an optical slab into the Fourier plane of the stretcher and creating an appropriate temperature-profile in the medium along the spectrum, a complete dispersion cancellation is made possible.