Multidimensional shaping of ultrafast optical waveforms

Abstract

Simultaneous temporal and spatial shaping of ultrashort optical pulses is demonstrated. A two-dimensional mask pattern is used to filter spatially separated frequency components along one coordinate and to impart a shaped spatial (or wave-vector) profile along the perpendicular coordinate, yielding a spatially and temporally coherent output waveform. As an example, a single input pulse is transformed into 11 spatially separated output beams, each with an independently specified temporal profile.