LASER SYSTEM EMPLOYING HARMONIC GENERATION

Abstract

A laser system provides harmonic generation in a laser beam pulse. In another aspect of the present invention, a laser operably remits a laser pulse, a gaseous optical medium operably creates third or greater harmonic generation in the pulse, and a controller characterizes and compensates for distortions in the pulse. A further aspect of the present invention employs multiple optical media arranged to cause cascading harmonic generations in a laser pulse.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally pertains to laser systems and more particularly to harmonic generation of a laser beam pulse.

It is known to use crystals to cause second harmonic generation (hereinafter “SHG”) in laser beam pulses. Such SHG crystals, however, are expensive and often require frequent replacement due to their hydroscopic nature leading to a reduction of their transparency and due to damage of the crystals over time, especially when used with high intensity lasers. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 6,504,612 entitled “Electromagnetic Wave Analyzer” which issued to Trebino on Jan. 7, 2003, discusses many shortcomings of using thin SHG crystals, however, this patent teaches away from the present invention by instead employing thick SHG crystals. U.S. Pat. No. 6,504,612 is nevertheless incorporated by reference herein.

A few studies have considered third harmonic generation in hollow-core fibers, in air or in noble gases. Exemplary studies are: (a) Y. Tamaki, et al., “Phase-Matched Third-Harmonic Generation by Nonlinear Phase Shift in a Hollow Fiber,” App. Phys. B 67, 59-63 (1998); (b) S. Backus, et al., “16-fs, 1-μJ Ultraviolet Pulses Generated by Third-Harmonic Conversion in Air,” Optics Letters, Vol. 21, No. 9, 665 (May 1, 1996); and (c) C. Siders, et al., “Blue-Shifted Third-Harmonic Generation and Correlated Self-Guiding during Ultra-Fast Barrier Suppression Ionization of Subatmospheric Density Noble Gases,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, Vol. 13, No. 2, 330 (February 1996). The systems of these studies, however, suffer from uncorrected pulse distortions and other undesired conditions. For example, the Y. Tamaki article found that prior high-order harmonic generation in gases, such as air, led to undesirable phase mismatching conditions, due in part to self-focusing of the pulse. But, the Y. Tamaki article employed an additional hollow fiber, and the cost and complexity disadvantages associated therewith, in an attempt to overcome the prior issues. Furthermore, R. Bartels, et al., “Shaped-Pulse Optimization of Coherent Emission of High-Harmonic Soft X-Rays,” Nature, Vol. 406, 164 (2000), discloses pulse shapes characterized using the frequency-resolved optical gating (“FROG”) technique which provided only an approximation of the amplitude and phase, but not a direct measurement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, a laser system provides harmonic generation in a laser beam pulse. In another aspect of the present invention, a laser operably emits a laser pulse, a gaseous optical medium operably creates third or greater harmonic generation in the pulse, and a controller characterizes and compensates for distortions in the pulse. A further aspect of the present invention employs multiple optical media arranged to cause cascading harmonic generations in a laser pulse, where at least one is: zero order harmonic generation, third harmonic generation or greater than third harmonic generation. A method of shaping, focusing in a gas, and minimizing distortion in a laser pulse is also provided. A method of using plasma, created by the pulse itself, to generate harmonics of the pulse, is additionally provided.

The laser system of the present invention is advantageous over prior devices since the present invention allows for the elimination of second harmonic generation crystals in some embodiments. This reduces cost, complexity and maintenance of the laser system of the present invention. This can also eliminate the use of autocorrelation or interferometry for measuring phase distortions and compensating for them. The present invention is further advantageous by automatically characterizing and compensating for undesirable distortions in ultra-fast laser pulses, especially those incorporating third harmonic generation. Another advantage of the present invention is that air-Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan (hereinafter “MIIPS”) is ideally suited for pulse durations less than five femtoseconds, for octave-spanning femtosecond lasers, and femtosecond pulses of less than two optical cycles in duration. By way of contrast, it is very difficult to use crystals with pulse durations less than five femtoseconds due to the very broad pulse bandwidth. The present invention has a clear advantage when there are no crystals suitable for generating the second harmonic of the wavelength of the laser. Cascading of harmonic generation optical media additionally achieves useful harmonic generation at wavelengths that are otherwise difficult to obtain. Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view showing a first preferred embodiment of a laser system of the present invention, employed in a laboratory;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing a second preferred embodiment of the laser system, also employed in a laboratory;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing a third preferred embodiment of the laser system, used on a specimen;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing an alternate embodiment of the laser system, employed for remote uses;

FIG. 5 is a series of traces comparing expected results for SHG crystal-MIIPS (in the left column) to THG air-MIIPS (in the right column) employing the first preferred embodiment laser system;

FIG. 6 is a graph comparing expected extracted phases for SHG crystal-MIIPS and THG air-MIIPS employing the first preferred embodiment laser system;

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view showing a fourth preferred embodiment of the laser system, employing cascading optical media for multiplied harmonic generation;

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic view showing a temporal symmetry feature of the first preferred embodiment laser system;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a computer program for a variation of MIIPS employed in the present invention laser system;

FIG. 10 is a theoretical graph corresponding to the computer program of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a graph showing a self-diffraction MIIPS variation employed in the present invention laser system; and

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic view, corresponding to FIG. 11, showing a self-diffraction MIIPS variation employed in the present invention laser system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention laser system preferably employs a noninterferometric single beam method for automated characterization and compression of amplified ultrashort femtosecond pulses that takes advantage of third order nonlinear processes in a gas, such as air. The method compensates high-order phase distortions based on Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan (hereinafter “MIIPS”). The accurate measurement of the spectral phase in femtosecond laser pulses is paramount to the use of phase-modulated laser pulses for femtochemistry, control of chemical reactions, and optical communications. Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan takes advantage of the influence that phase modulation has on the intensity of nonlinear optical processes. The MIIPS equipment and method are disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0056468 entitled “Control System and Apparatus for Use with Ultra-Fast Laser,” which was invented by M. Dantus, et al., and published on Mar. 16, 2006; this patent publication is incorporated by reference herein. Utilizing the method of MIIPS on third harmonic generation in air allows for spectral phase characterization and compensation without need for a crystal typically required for second order nonlinear optical processes. In addition, no phase-matching criterion is required for the third harmonic generation in air employed with the present invention, thereby eliminating pulse bandwidth limitations typically introduced by second harmonic generation in nonlinear crystals.

Referring to FIG. 1, a first preferred embodiment of a laser system 11 of the present invention is ideally suited for use in a laboratory. An amplified titanium:sapphire, Legend model laser 13, which can be obtained from Coherent Inc., is used to produce 1 mJ, 40 fs laser beam pulses 12 at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The laser amplifier is seeded with a Micra model titanium:sapphire oscillator 15 which can also be obtained from Coherent Inc. The seed pulses are shaped by an all-reflective folded 4 f pre-amplification pulse shaper 17 with a phase only spatial light modulator (hereinafter “SLM”) which can be obtained from CRi as SLM 128, before amplification by an amplifier 19. A computer controller 22 is connected to and automatically controls the pulse shaper.

The output laser pulse intensity is reduced to 20 μJ and focused in air with a 50 mm focal length concave mirror 23. The air focal point is also designated as a gaseous, nonlinear optical medium 24, and may alternately include argon, nitrogen or helium gas in a housing. Low incident power is required to diminish the effects of self phase modulation on the measured phase. It is possible to increase the incident power to 250 μJ with a 250 mm focal length concave mirror. The third harmonic is collimated and separated from the fundamental beam by a fused-silica prism pair 25. The light is then coupled into an Ocean Optics USB 2000 spectrometer 27, which is also connected to controller 21. The third harmonic spectrum is then detected by the spectrometer and recorded as a function of δ to produce the air-MIIPS traces illustrated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 illustrates expected air-MIIPS measurements taken alongside SHG MIIPS measurements using a BBO crystal for the purpose of comparing the extracted phase. The MIIPS traces are first shown for the initially uncompensated phase of the laser pulse, then for the compensated phase producing transform limited pulses. The figure also shows the effect of +2000 fs² positive and −2000 fs² negative chirp on both types of MIIPS traces. Further, FIG. 6 shows the flat phase of the compressed/compensated pulse by SHG crystal-MIIPS (shown with solid lines) and THG air-MIIPS (shown with phantom lines). FIG. 6 also shows the retrieved phase for +/−2000 fs² chirp imparted on the phase by the SLM in the pulse shaper.

For three-photon excitation, in the absence of intermediate resonances as long as self-phase modulation is small, the electric field can be written as

$E^{\left(3\right)}\left(\Delta \right)\propto {\int }_{-\infty }^{\infty }{\int }_{-\infty }^{\infty }{\Omega }_1{\Omega }_2E\left({\Omega }_1\right)E\left({\Omega }_2\right)E\left(\Delta -{\Omega }_1-{\Omega }_2\right)\times \exp \left\{\left[\varphi \left({\Omega }_1\right)+\varphi \left({\Omega }_2\right)+\varphi \left(\Delta -{\Omega }_1-{\Omega }_2\right)\right]\right\}$

where |E| and φ are the field amplitude and phase of the intermediate frequencies that combine to generate the third harmonic. Each photon in the three photon transition is spectrally detuned by Ω₁, Ω₂, or (−Ω₁-Ω₂), and A is the detuning from the third order multiple of the carrier frequency of the pulse (ω−3ω_o). This Four Wave Mixing process applies to all third order processes.

As in SHG MIIPS, air-MIIPS works by scanning a reference phase function, ƒ(δ,ω), across the pulse's spectral width by the spectrometer. When the reference phase is ƒ(δ,ω)=α sin(γω−δ), the parameters, α and γ, are fixed parameters representing the binary values of π and the pulse duration respectively. As the phase shift δ is scanned from 0 to 4π by the spectrometer, the third harmonic spectrum is recorded by the computer controller. The δ value that produces the maximum third harmonic intensity for each frequency, δ_m(ω), is found for each order n, and the second derivative of the unknown phase is calculated using:

φⁿ(ω)=αγ² sin [γω−δ_mⁿ(ω)]

The second derivative is used by the controller to determine the spectral phase φ(ω), which is added to ƒ(δ,ω) at the shaper for another iteration of the above process, resulting in a refined result for φ(ω). In this way, the phase is calculated directly from the data via an iterative analytical approach. Another preferred variation uses a quadratic phase function in place of the sinusoidal phase function.

A second preferred embodiment of the laser system of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 2. The equipment and method are essentially the same as with the first preferred embodiment except a collimating concave mirror 41 directs the pulse 12. A small portion of the THG is thereafter scattered by dust, water droplets, a prism, etc. toward a spectrometer with a CCD detector 43. The remainder of the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum continues to propagate for use with measurements. A photomultiplier tube or simplified spectrometer could be used in place of the CCD/spectrometer disclosed in this embodiment. This set-up is ideally suited for a laboratory environment.

FIG. 3 shows a third preferred embodiment of the present invention laser system well suited for a field or industrial environment. This embodiment is similar to the first preferred system except a 99% reflective splitter 61 reflects a majority of the pulse 63 to a specimen or object 65 being identified or worked upon (such as through micromachining, protein sequencing, communications, or OCT) and a small amount of the pulse 67 to concave mirror 21 for the air-MIIPS. An antireflective coating is on the backside of splitter 61.

A remote sensing or remote working laser system of the present invention is shown in FIG. 4. This alternate embodiment laser system 71 is similar to the third preferred embodiment except that the main laser pulse 63 is focused by a telescope 73 to a gaseous nonlinear optical medium 75, such as atmospheric air, to create third harmonic generation in the pulse 63. The THG, MIIPS compensated pulse is remotely transmitted 5 or more meters (most likely greater than 10 meters) from the laser system to a targeted object or specimen. Ideally, the THG focal point should be at or near the targeted object. Such a system is used for remote identification of an undesired biological or chemical specimen, or to ablate the surface of an aerospace object 77 such as a missile, airplane, satellite or the like for identification or other purposes. It is also envisioned that this exemplary embodiment can be employed as a visible light-emitting filament, elongated along a portion of the pulse's path.

A fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a cascading laser system 91 and is illustrated in FIG. 7. This system is similar to that disclosed hereinabove for the third preferred embodiment. The differences, however, include a first gaseous, nonlinear optical medium 93, a second concave mirror 95, and a second gaseous, nonlinear optical medium 97. This arrangement of two or more in-line harmonic generation units creates a cascading and harmonic generation multiplying effect on the pulse. Here a gas is employed in each optical medium 93 and 97 to cause third harmonic generation at each location. For example, an argon gas is used for the optical media and a pulse duration of about 30-40 fs is employed centered about 800 nm. Argon is desirable due to its atomic and highly polarizable nature. The first optical medium creates THG at about 266 nm and the second optical medium creates THG at about 89 nm. The cascading allows for “nonlinear wave mixing” of the pulse.

Alternately, combinations of crystals and a gaseous optical medium can be used in a cascading and harmonic generation multiplying process. For example, a 0.1 mm thick crystal of Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphite (KDP) or a BBO crystal having a thickness of 0.05 mm is used at either the first or second optical medium location to create second harmonic generation, and a gas is used at the other optical medium location to create third harmonic generation. It should also be appreciated that three or more optical media can be cascaded in-line and a second amplifier may be optionally provided between any pairs of optical media.

Referring to FIG. 8 and the air-MIIPS TL graph in FIG. 5, the features in the MIIPS trace show an alternating intensity pattern. The changes in the intensity are due to the fact that sinusoidal phase modulation can be used to prepare pulses with a temporal asymmetry. Time-asymmetric pulses are those that change if time is reversed. For example, when the phase function is one period of the sine function in the frequency domain, the pulse, in the time domain can be described as a progression of increasingly stronger pulses ending with one that is greatest in intensity. The phase between the sub-pulses alternates. By changing the phase to minus-sine the temporal symmetry is reversed, in this case the most intense feature precedes the sub-pulses. This feature is well suited for use with micromachining or for medical surgery.

When lasers interact with matter, in most cases the temporal symmetry of the shaped pulse matters. For example, with a sine function one can use the preceding sub-pulses to cause molecular alignment, or to promote the motion of atoms away from their equilibrium position thus enhancing the probability of ionization and dissociation. This effect is manifested in MIIPS as an enhanced signal, and in micromachining as an enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (“LIBS”) signal.

There are a number of strategies that can be used to control the temporal symmetry of shaped laser pulses. A nonlimiting example of temporal asymmetry is as follows:

• • Linear chirp (a quadratic phase modulation in frequency): Introduces only a frequency asymmetry but not an intensity profile asymmetry.
  • Sine functions: introduce clear temporal asymmetry in the intensity envelope. A multiplier changes the intensity of the sub-pulses. The extent of the sub-pulses can be controlled by introducing the factor such that for a phase φ(ω)= 3/2π Sin(τω) increasing τ decreases the extent in time of the sub-pulses, and vice versa.
  • Binary phase functions (0-π): always produce pulses that are temporally symmetric.
  • Binary phase functions (0-π/2): can be used to prepare temporally asymmetric pulses.
  • Cubic phase modulation: produces temporal asymmetry similar to sine functions, a multiplier can be used to control the spacing between the sub-pulses and for how long they extend. A positive pre-factor causes the appearance of trailing sub-pulses, and a negative pre-factor causes sub-pulses to appear before the strongest pulse.

In other words, temporally asymmetric pulses increase or decrease in intensity as a function to time. They can be created using a cubic or a sinusoidal phase function. Pulses that start with high intensity and then decrease are ideal when there is a threshold; for example, in micromachining, ablation, plasma generation, and filamentation. Pulses that start with a lower intensity are ideal when the process requires molecular alignment. Then the slow increase of the laser intensity gives the molecules a chance to align before the more intense part of the laser arrives and ionizes them.

Plasma Harmonic Generation

An alternate embodiment of the present invention laser system uses plasma to cause harmonic generation rather than a crystal. The plasma is created through ionization of the workpiece or targeted specimen, and otherwise acts like the air focal point and air-MIIPS described with the previous embodiments herein. Odd or even numbered harmonic generation can be created depending upon the type of transmission and specimen interface. For example, an air transmission and an airborn, gaseous chemical specimen can create third harmonic generation from the associated plasma. As a further example, a liquid transmission and silicon wafer specimen can create SHG from the associated plasma. The plasma is created by the pulse itself ablating the specimen through ionization. The plasma generates harmonics in the pulse that can subsequently be used for MIIPS characterization and compensation of the phase distortions. An exemplary micromachining system and method are disclosed in International PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US2007/008878 entitled “Laser Material Processing System” invented by Marcos Dantus and filed on Apr. 9, 2007; this application is incorporated by reference herein. When the laser beam is focused on the medium to create a plasma, the intensity or spectrum of the harmonics of the pulse produced by the plasma is used to characterize the pulses and compensate for phase distortions in the pulses either in a repetitive and automatically controlled manner, or with a fixed shaper set to predetermined values (based on prior tests or calculations).

MIIPS Variation

A MIIPS variation is as follows. Conceptually, MIIPS is based on the observation that for a given frequency co, the SHG is maximized when the second derivative of the phase is zero. The reason for this is that when the second derivative of the phase is zero there is only constructive multiphoton intrapulse interference (hereinafter “MII”). When the second derivative of the phase is not zero there is destructive MII and this suppresses nonlinear optical (“NLO”) processes. This can be summarized in one equation of MIIPS: f″(ω,δ_max)−Φ″(ω)=0, where δ_max is the parameter in the reference phase function for which the NLO signal at frequency ω is maximized. This condition provides a direct measurement of the second derivative of the unknown phase in terms of the reference phase, because when the NLO is maximized Φ″(ω)=f″(ω,δ_max) is known. Therefore, for every frequency ω, the reference phase ƒ(ω,δ_max) that maximizes the NLO process is found in the measured scan.

Referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, programmed computer software instructions 101 for MIIPS use a pulse shaper to successively introduce a set of calibrated reference spectral phases ƒ(ω,δ) to the pulses, with unknown phase distortion Φ(δ), and measures the resulting NLO spectra. Alternatively, the reference phase can be introduced by scanning a prism or a grating. The NLO process can be second harmonic generation, third harmonic generation, terahertz generation, or any higher harmonic generation. In some cases, where the spectrum is not available, it is possible to run MIIPS by more simply recording the intensity of the NLO process without the full spectrum. In this case, recording the total two-photon excitation or three-photon excitation should work properly. The material is, for example, zinc oxide or gallium nitride powder.

Once Φ″(ω) is determined, double integration results in Φ(ω), which can be used for accurate phase compensation by subtraction to achieve TL pulses. A MIIPS scan can be visualized in a two dimensional contour plot showing the NLO intensity as a function of ω and δ, as is illustrated in FIG. 10. When the reference function is ƒ(ω,δ)=δ(ω−ω₀)², the quadratic reference phase, a δ scan results directly in Φ″(ω). When the reference function is ƒ(ω,δ)=δ(ω−ω₀)²∵γ(ω−ω₀)³, the cubic reference phase, a δ scan results in diagonal lines with a slope proportional to γ, when correcting for that slope on obtains two measurements for Φ″(ω), each corresponding to the plus or minus sign of γ. When the reference function ƒ(ω,δ)=α sin [γ(ω−ω₀)-δ] is used, the sinusoidal reference phase, where 5 is a parameter scanned across a 4π range, the features corresponding to δ_max(ω) for TL pulses are diagonal parallel lines separated by π. The choice of reference phase is determined by the user, however, sinusoidal phases are preferred for very accurate results. Nevertheless, a quadratic phase is very simple to implement and gives an excellent first scan. The accuracy of the cubic phase should be as good as that of the sinusoidal phase. It is preferred to run one iteration with the quadratic phase and then run subsequent iterations with the cubic phase.

The target phase residue is set as the minimum deviations tolerable by the user. Typically, distortions are reduced to 0.1 rad across the spectrum. One can also define the parameter τ/τ_TL, where τ and τ_TL are the calculated pulse duration by Fourier transform of the spectrum of the laser with and without the residual phase distortion. MIIPS values with this embodiment should routinely reach the 1.01 level and in some cases are even lower than 1.001.

When the spectrum of the NLO process cannot be measured or is unknown, and one can only measure the integrated NLO intensity, then the cubic or sinusoidal reference phases are preferred. The phase retrieval then requires measuring the position and width of the maximum NLO. The spacing between the maxima gives the quadratic dispersion and the difference in width gives the cubic dispersion when using a sinusoidal function. The goal is to obtain equally spaced features of equal width. In this situation one cannot correct higher order distortions as with the MIIPS that uses the spectroscopic information.

Programmable computer software instructions 101, shown in FIG. 9, are stored in the controller. This software automatically calculates, determines and controls the laser and pulse shaper or gratings/prisms based upon the sensed signals from the spectrometer. It is noteworthy that this simpler approach to MIIPS does not always require a dedicated pulse shaper, but instead can use a pair of less expensive gratings or prisms. For example, the MIIPS unit can use the amplifier and compressor gratings. Alternately, a fixed shaper can be employed for correcting the pulse distortion based on the new MIIPS software calculations. Especially for pulse durations of 5 fs or less, when MIIPS is used with a quadratic phase function instead of a sinusoidal function, a single scan is needed to measure the phase distortions with an accuracy similar to 0.5%.

Dentistry

The present invention laser system and method are ideally suited for use in performing dentistry. For example, a Ti:Sa femtosecond laser using a pulse energy of about 300-400 μJ and a pulse repetition rate of about 3 kHz is expected to achieve an ablation rate of about 1 mm³/min on the dentine surface of a human tooth. The laser pulse is shaped and MIIPS is preferably employed to reduce undesired pulse distortions. The pulse creates plasma which can optionally be employed instead of a crystal. A pulse duration equal to or less than 120 fs is preferred for dental surgery which includes drilling.

Self-Diffraction MIIPS

Another variation of the laser system of the present invention employs self-diffraction Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan methods and systems. Reference should be made to FIGS. 11 and 12. Self-diffraction is essentially the same as four wave mixing and transient grating. Self-diffraction MIIPS is particularly useful in characterizing ultraviolet pulses for which SHG crystals are unavailable. Self diffraction removes the wavelength restrictions of SHG crystals, making it work for any wavelength from the hard-UV to the far-infrared. FIG. 11 shows infrared, transform limited pulses expected with self-diffraction MIIPS.

A laser system 103 includes an emitted fs laser pulse 105 which is self-diffracted by a mask 107 having a pair of apertures. Mask 107 blocks all but two small regions of the amplified pulse (although additional apertures can alternately be used). The resulting beams are then focused on a nonlinear medium 111 by a lens 109 and the self-diffracting signal 113 is detected by a compact fiber-coupled spectrometer. A 100 μm quartz plate and a 250 μm sapphire plate are used for the IR and UV pulses, respectively. While transform limited pulses are used, a small quadratic and cubic dispersion are apparent in the feature spacing and angle; these distortions can be measured and compensated for using the MIIPS systems and methods discussed hereinabove. The traces in FIG. 11 are parallel and equidistant features indicating TL pulses using infrared pulses. Unlike in the prior FROG method, the self-diffraction of the present invention does not force a delay in the pulses, does not require a vacuum and can be used with a crystal (or without, using air or plasma instead) even for UV pulses.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed, it should be realized that other variations may alternately be employed. For example, the gaseous nonlinear optical medium can be used to generate zero order harmonic generation (known as optical rectification), fifth order harmonic generation or seventh or greater harmonic generation, in a compensated pulse. Further for example, it may be desirable to provide a 1 μm Yttrium or 1.5 μm Erbium laser to create fifth harmonic generation in a gas. Moreover, the dual beam FROG procedure can be used in combination with cascading optical media although various advantages of the preferred embodiment may not be realized. It is alternately envisioned to employ a pulse duration of less than 5 fs with air-MIIPS or other nonlinear gaseous optical media, and without a crystal. It is intended by the following claims to cover these and any other departures from the disclosed embodiments which fall within the true spirit of this invention.

Claims

1. A laser system comprising a laser operably emitting a laser pulse, a gaseous optical medium operably creating third or greater order harmonic generation in the pulse, and a controller assisting in compensating for spectral phase distortions in the pulse.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller operably uses Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan to measure and compensate for distortions in the pulse.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the gaseous optical medium is only air.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a telescope operably focusing the pulse at least 5 meters away in the gaseous optical medium.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a pulse shaper automatically changed by the controller, the pulse being shaped prior to creation of the harmonic generation.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a second optical medium changing the harmonic generation of the pulse, the optical media being positioned relative to each other to cascade the harmonic generations in the pulse.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the gaseous optical medium is an atomic gas.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the intensity of the third or greater order harmonic generation is used to measure spectral phase distortions and determine the extent of phase distortions in the pulse by the controller.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the pulse has a duration of less than 5 fs.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the gaseous optical medium is a plasma.

11. A laser system comprising: a laser operably emitting a laser beam pulse having a duration of 50 fs or less;a pulse shaper operably shaping the pulse;a controller controlling shaping characteristics of the pulse shaper;a gaseous location creating at least third harmonic generation in the pulse, the gaseous location being remotely located at least 5 meters away from the laser; anda focusing optic operably focusing the pulse at the gaseous location.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein binary phases are introduced into the pulse by the shaper.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the focusing optic is a telescope.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the controller operably uses Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan software to measure and compensate for distortions in the pulse.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein there is only air at the gaseous location.

16. The system of claim 11 further comprising a second location includes changing the harmonic generation of the pulse, the gaseous locations being positioned relative to each other to cascade the harmonic generations in the pulse.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the gaseous location includes an atomic gas.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein the pulse propagates as a self-generating filament.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein the controller operably identifies a characteristic of a specimen which receives the shaped pulse.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein the pulse shaper operably changes the spectral phase of the pulse to maximize the at least third harmonic generation through a series of automated measurement and compensation steps until the minimum deviation limit is achieved.

21. The system of claim 11 wherein the duration of the pulse is shorter than two optical cycles.

22. A laser system comprising: a laser operably emitting a laser pulse;a first optical medium spaced from the laser;at least a second optical medium spaced from the laser and the first optical medium; anda pulse shaper located between at least part of the laser and at least one of the optical media;at least one of the optical media causing third or greater harmonic generation of the pulse;the other of the optical media changing the harmonic generation of the pulse substantially in-line with the other optical medium; andthe pulse cascading through the pulse shaper, the first optical medium and the second optical medium.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein at least one of the optical media is a gas.

24. A method of operating a laser system comprising: (a) shaping a laser beam pulse of less than 50 fs;(b) focusing the shaped pulse in a gas without a crystal to generate third or greater harmonic generation, or zero order harmonic generation in the pulse; and(c) automatically varying the shape of subsequent pulses to minimize distortions therein.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising cascading the pulse, after the shaping and focusing, through a subsequent gaseous nonlinear optical medium to change the harmonic generation of the pulse.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising aiming the pulse at a remote object more than 5 meters away from the laser system.

27. The method of claim 24 further comprising automatically characterizing and compensating for undesired characteristics in the pulses.

28. The method of claim 24 further comprising destroying a remotely located object with the pulse.

29. The method of claim 24 further comprising micromachining an object with the pulse.

30. The method of claim 24 further comprising creating third harmonic generation in the pulse with the gas which is air.

31. The method of claim 24 further comprising using the dependence of the spectrum of the third harmonic on a phase parameter to calculate an optimum pulse compression function.

32. The method of claim 24 further comprising emitting the pulse with a duration of less than 5 fs, and directly measuring and compensating for undesired spectral phase distortions in the pulse.

33. The method of claim 24 further comprising performing surgery with the shaped pulse.

34. The system of claim 24 wherein the gas is plasma.

35. A method of operating a laser system comprising: (a) emitting a laser pulse;(b) transmitting the pulse through apertures in an otherwise nontransparent mask;(c) focusing laser beams emitted from the apertures on a nonlinear medium; and(d) detecting a self-diffracting signal from at least one of the laser beams.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising detecting the self-diffracting signal with a spectrometer and emitting the pulse with a fs laser.

37. The method of claim 35 further comprising using Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan to compensate for distortions in the pulse.

38. The method of claim 35 further comprising using a gaseous optical medium to create harmonic generation in the pulse.

39. The method of claim 35 wherein the pulse has an infrared wavelength.

40. A method of operating a laser system comprising: (a) using at least one reference phase on a laser pulse to assist in determining a characteristic of a nonlinear optical process in at least one pulse;(b) determining when the nonlinear optical process in the pulse is maximized for various frequencies;(c) calculating distortions in the pulse; and(d) determining an appropriate correction to compensate for the distortions.

41. The method of claim 40 further comprising introducing the reference phase into the pulse with a pulse shaper.

42. The method of claim 40 further comprising introducing the reference phase into the pulse with a prism.

43. The method of claim 40 further comprising introducing the reference phase into the pulse with a grating.

44. The method of claim 40 further comprising a programmable controller automatically conducting the determining and calculating steps, and a laser and a spectrometer being connected to and controlled by the controller.

45. The method of claim 40 further comprising using a sinusoidal reference phase to determine the characteristics.

46. The method of claim 40 further comprising using a quadratic reference phase and subsequently a cubic reference phase to determine the characteristics.

47. The method of claim 40 further comprising using a single scan to accurately measure phase distortions, and causing the at least one pulse to have a duration of 5 fs or less.

48. The method according to claim 40, further comprising directly measuring a second derivative of an unknown phase in terms of the reference phase.

49. The method according to claim 40, further comprising using double integration of a phase to compensate for phase distortion in the pulse.

50. The method according to claim 40, further comprising running a Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan by recording an intensity of the nonlinear optical process without a full spectrum.

51. The method according to claim 40, further comprising using the laser pulse for dentistry.

52. The method according to claim 40, further comprising using a gaseous optical medium to create third or greater order harmonic generation in the pulse.

53. A computer program, stored in memory, the program comprising: (a) a first set of instructions operably causing at least one reference phase on a laser pulse to assist in determining a characteristic of a nonlinear optical process in the pulse;(b) a second set of instructions operably evaluating nonlinear optical data obtained as a function of a set of reference phases to determine a signal function that describes the maximum nonlinear optical signal as a function of frequency; and(c) a third set of instructions operably calculating spectral phase of the pulses from the signal function.

54. The computer program of claim 53 further comprising a fourth set of instructions operably determining an appropriate correction to compensate for the distortions.

55. The computer program of claim 53 further comprising a forth set of instructions using a single scan to accurately measure phase distortions in the pulse, and causing the at least one pulse to have a duration of 5 fs or less.

56. The computer program of claim 53, further comprising a set of instructions operably directly measuring a second derivative of an unknown phase in terms of the reference phase.

57. The computer program of claim 53, further comprising a set of instructions using double integration of a phase to compensate for phase distortion in the pulses.

58. The computer program of claim 53, further comprising a set of instructions running a Multiphoton Intrapulse Interference Phase Scan by recording an intensity of the nonlinear optical process without a full spectrum.