Tailored-Beam Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Laser pulses with picosecond and femtosecond durations are now indispensable tools in many scientific disciplines. These ultrashort pulses provide unique temporal resolutions for investigations of phenomena taking place in comparable time ranges. In addition, optical energies squeezed into such short time windows yield extremely high peak powers and intensities, paving the way to generate unprecedented light-matter interactions. On the other side, recent advances in spatial light intensity and phase modulation devices enables generation of laser beam profiles with intriguing physical properties. By merging the two realms, optics researchers can now have the ability to harness light both in space and time. These possibilities bring about new physical interactions and significantly facilitate many applications of lasers.