The generation of ultrashort mode-locked pulses in dispersion compensated laser cavities is discussed. The primary limitation to sub-50 fs pulse generation is high order dispersion within the laser cavity. Reduction of the second and third order dispersion contributions of an intracavity prism pair allows the generation of near transform limited pulses of 19 fs duration and residually chirped pulses of approximately 14.5 fs from a mode-locked Ti : sapphire laser.