Ultrashort_pulse_laser
Ultrashort pulse laser
Laser capable of delivering picosecond (10^-12 s) pulses of light
An ultrashort pulse laser is a laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light, generally of the order of femtoseconds to one picosecond. They are also known as ultrafast lasers owing to the speed at which pulses "turn on" and "off"—not to be confused with the speed at which light propagates, which is determined by the properties of the medium (and has an upper limit), particularly its index of refraction, and can vary as a function of field intensity (i.e. self-phase modulation) and wavelength (chromatic dispersion).[1][2]
Common current ultrashort pulse laser technologies include Ti-sapphire lasers and dye lasers. High output peak power usually requires chirped pulse amplification of a seed pulse from a modelocked laser. Dealing with high optical powers also needs the nonlinear optical phenomena to be taken in account.[citation needed]