Abstract: The invention relates to a device for generating laser pulses. It is the object of the invention to make the frequency range of molecular vibrations of 0-700 cm?1, which is highly interesting for a large number of applications of coherent Raman spectroscopy/microscopy, accessible.

Abstract: The disclosure provides an optical system which allows fluctuations in the pulse duration of ultrashort laser pulses to be detected quickly, sensitively and simply, and in a manner which makes it possible to derive an error signal for controlling the pulse duration from the detection. The optical system provided has a laser source (1) designed for generating pulsed laser radiation consisting of a chronological sequence of laser pulses, at least one dispersive optical element (4), designed to impress a group transit time dispersion and thus a chirp on the laser pulses, a nonlinear medium (5) designed for the non-linear spectral broadening of the laser pulses during propagation through the medium (5), and a detection device (6) designed to detect the spectral broadening. Furthermore, the disclosure relates to a method for generating laser pulses.

Abstract: The invention relates to an optical system comprising: a laser source which generates pulsed laser radiation consisting of a temporal sequence of laser pulses; and at least one pulse compression device which is located in the beam path and has a non-linear medium, wherein the laser pulses undergo non-linear spectral broadening during propagation through the medium, and a chirp is applied to the laser pulses. The aim of the invention is to provide an optical system which makes it possible to generate non-linearly compressed laser pulses with improved temporal pulse contrast or with improved pulse quality. According to the disclosed approach, a group delay dispersion which varies along the beam path and which compensates at least partially for the chirp is applied to the laser pulses by the pulse compression device.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to an optical system comprising a laser source (1) which generates pulsed laser radiation consisting of a temporal sequence of laser pulses in an input laser beam (EL), a splitting element (2) which follows the laser source (1) in the course of the beam and splits each of the laser pulses into laser pulse replicas separated spatially and/or temporally from one another, a combination element (4) which follows the splitting element (2) in the course of the beam and superimposes the laser pulse replicas in a respective laser pulse in an output laser beam. It is the task of the disclosure to provide an improved optical system compared to the prior art. It should be possible to generate particularly short and thus spectrally broadband laser pulses of high power with the optical system.

Abstract: The invention relates to an optical system with a dividing element (2), which divides the input laser beam (EL) into a number of spatially separate sub-beams, at least one optical amplifier (4), through which the spatially separate sub-beams propagate, at least one path-length adjustment element (3), which adjusts the path length of at least one of the sub-beams, and a combination element (6, 8), which coherently superimposes the sub-beams in an output laser beam. The object of the invention is to achieve a high beam quality in the output laser beam, wherein the demands on the surface quality of the optical components used are to be reduced compared with the prior art.