Patent ID: 8462427

Claim:
Optical apparatus, comprising: an oscillator for generating a sequence of optical pulses; a pulse stretcher for temporally stretching the optical pulses, the pulse-stretcher including a first diffraction grating, the pulses being incident on the diffraction grating at a first incidence angle; an optical amplifier arranged to amplify the temporally stretched optical pulses; and a pulse compressor for temporally compressing the amplified temporally stretched pulses, the pulse compressor including a second diffraction grating, the amplified temporally stretched pulses being incident on the second diffraction grating at a second incidence angle; and a detector for periodically measuring a carrier envelope phase (CEP) of the temporally compressed amplified pulses and with the output from the detector being used to adjust one of the first and second incidence angles cooperative with the CEP measurement such that the CEP of the temporally compressed amplified pulses remain about constant.