Spectral windowing of frequency-modulated optical pulses in a grating compressor

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Abstract
Spectral windowing or apodization of the spatially dispersed frequency components within a grating compressor has been used to control the temporal shape of compressed optical pulses. Windowing of undesirable high and low‐frequency components, which are not linearly chirped, results in nearly complete elimination of the energy in the wings of the compressed pulse. We have applied this technique to improve the quality of pulses from a mode‐locked neodymium: yttrium aluminum garnet laser compressed to less than 2 ps using a fiber and double‐pass grating pair with an internal aperture.