Fig. 1.

Basic utility of temporal focusing for micromachining. (a) An illustration of the focusing geometry. 800 nm, 60 fs, 50 µJ pulses are focused at 0.05 NA at the back surface of a 6 mm thick block of fused silica. (b) Without spatially chirped pulses, self-focusing and supercontinuum generation result in a loss of intensity at the focus. The glass is tracked along the length of the filament and selective ablation at the focal depth is inhibited. (c) With spatially chirped pulses, self-focusing and continuum generation are suppressed, and the backside of the glass sample is ablated as evidenced by the plasma emission.