Fig. 1. Overview of the input pulse parameter for the MPC with different Kerr media.

Fig. 2. (a) Schematic layout of the pre-chirp management nonlinear compression setup. HWP, half wave plate; TFP, thin film polarizer; L1–L3, lenses; CM1 and CM2, concave mirrors; FS, fused silica plate. (b) Pulse duration of the driving laser. (c) Pulse duration after pre-chirping.

Fig. 3. (a) Input spectrum (blue line), output spectrum of the positively pre-chirped MPC (black line) and its corresponding theoretical simulation (red line). (b) Retrieved temporal intensity (black line), phase (red line) and FTL pulse width (blue line) with an inset of the measured FROG trace.

Fig. 4. Spectral evolution when the laser pulse is negatively pre-chirped as it propagates in the MPC. (a)–(g) The spectrum progressively narrows with increasing passes through the MPC. (h) The spectrum begins to broaden.

Fig. 5. (a) Spectrum after negatively pre-chirped MPC and of simulated broadened spectrum. (b) Black line, retrieved temporal intensity; red line, retrieved phase; blue line, FTL; inset, measured FROG trace.

Fig. 6. Spatio-spectral homogeneity characterization of the compressed pulse for positively (a), (b) and negatively (e), (f) pre-chirped conditions. (c), (d) and (g), (h) show the intensity distribution and corresponding V-parameter of both directions for two pre-chirped conditions. The blue curves show the normalized intensity of the spectral profile. The red curves show the spatial-spectral homogeneity values (V-parameter).

Fig. 7. Power stability before (a) and after (b) the positively pre-chirped MPC unit. (c) Beam quality of the driving laser. (d) Beam quality after the positively pre-chirped MPC unit.