Self-compression of ultrahigh-peak-power lasers

Pulse self-compression is a simple and economical method for improving the peak power of ultra-intense laser pulses. By solving a modified nonlinear Schrodinger equation considering the fifth-order susceptibility, we found that self-compression appeared even in normally dispersive medium owing to the negative fifth-order susceptibility inducing a mass of negative frequency chirp. Furthermore, negatively pre-chirped pulses allow for self-compression at lower intensity, avoiding medium damage. We numerically analyze the optimal choice of pre-chirp, input intensity, and medium length. A proof-of-principle experiment successfully proves the above theoretical findings. It is expected that petawatt or even exawatt laser pulses with 25 fs/15 fs transform limited pulse duration can be self-compressed to about 9.9 fs/7.6 fs in normally dispersive medium, such as fused silica glass plate.