High-power sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillators

The state of the art of mirror-dispersion-controlled (MDC) Ti:sapphire laser oscillators is reviewed. Owing to improvements in the cavity and mirror design, these systems can now routinely generate sub-10-fs pulses with peak powers exceeding the megawatt level. The unique compactness of MDC Ti:sapphire oscillators results in excellent noise characteristics, a nearly diffraction limited output, and a high reproducibility of performance. Employing a diode-pumped solid-state laser as a pump source allows the generation of sub-10-fs pulses from an all-solid-state laser for the first time.