Theoretical and experimental studies on single tiled grating pulse compressor

A tiled grating pulse compressor in a single grating configuration has been investigated. Since it is a folded geometry, there are several geometrical constraints that restrict hard-clip-free recompression of positively chirped pulses. Therefore, the parametric space allowed by the geometrical constraints has been worked out for three geometries. In contrast to other pulse compressor designs, owing to the fact that it involves only one tiled optical surface, the present design has advantages of compact geometry, reduced cost, ease of alignment, and easier maintenance for long term stability. Compression of positively chirped laser pulses of ∼250 ps duration to 350 fs has been experimentally demonstrated.