Magnified expansion and compression of subpicosecond pulses from afrequency-doubled Nd:YLF laser

Pulses from a mode-locked frequency-doubled Nd:YLF laser have been spectrally broadened and subsequently expanded to more than 200 ps and recompressed to 750 fs by grating compressors with magnifying telescopes. The design magnifies the time delay dispersion to a factor 10 times larger than achievable with standard compressors of similar size. The design of the system and its sensitivity to the variations in the position of its optical components is analyzed. The scheme allows efficient amplification of subpicosecond pulses in dye amplifiers