FemtoControl is a compact, motor driven pulse compressor.

APE has developed the compact pulse compressor FemtoControl for optimizing the length of femtosecond pulses in an easy and efficient way. Pulse compression is indispensable wherever laser pulses experience strong dispersion passing through a lot of optical material, e.g. a microscope. The result is immense temporal broadening of the pulse and therefore a change and possibly deterioration of the measuring conditions in applications like two-photon-microscopy.

The functioning of the FemtoControl is that of a 2-prism pulse compressor. It allows the user to efficiently remote control the length of femtosecond pulses. Without readjustment or changing the prism distance the instrument features continuously variable compensation of negative as well as positive dispersion of Ti:Sapphire laser pulses from 700 to 930 nm with input lengths from 80 to 200 fs. Material dispersion in a Multi-Photon-Excitation (MPE) microscope of around 13 000 fs², for example, causes a broadening of a 100 femtosecond pulse to 370 femtoseconds at 800 nm. By motorized positioning of two prisms FemtoControl generates a negative angle dispersion which then compensates the positive GVD (Group Velocity Dispersion) of the MPE optics. Therefore, the pulse shows its original length of 100 fs at the position of the probe.

Optimal pulse management can be achieved by the combination of FemtoControl and the autocorrelator Carpe, which has been developed for the special needs of microscopy. It measures the pulse length before the beam enters the microscope and – due to an external sensor – also at the sample position. Carpe also contains a control option for the pulse compressor. The assembly shows compact design and ease of use.

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Distributors	Japan: Phototechnica Corporation