Single-shot B-integral wave-front correction of femtosecond laser pulses

Summary form only given. Chirped pulse amplification allowed the development of ultrashort, high-intensity lasers. At this high-intensity level, the third-order nonlinear effect can cause wave-front distortions in even a small amount of material. Although often neglected, this effect can significantly reduce the spatial quality and thus the focusability of the beam, thereby severely reducing the attainable focused intensity. To quantify this decrease in the peak focused intensity, we use the normalized Strehl intensity, which is the ratio of the peak intensity at focus ofa beam with a distorted wave front to that of the same beam without distortions. We present, in this paper, the wave-front correction of femtosecond pulses distorted by third-order nonlinearities. To measure with a good accuracy this wave-front distortion, we use an achromatic three-wave lateral shearing interferometer (ATWLSI), which has been shown to be particularly suitable for single-shot measurements of both phase and intensity for femtosecond pulses.