Pulsed laser power part 2

In a previous post, we discussed how peak power is computed. Although Ti:Sapph laser manufacturers typically quote the average power, peak power is the more relevant quantity for two photon excitation. Here’s a graph showing how narrow pulse widths can increase peak power.

It takes about 3 watts of average power in a beam for 150 fs pulses to match the peak power of 50 fs pulses in a beam with an average power of 1 watt. Note that once one gets down to lower pulse widths, dispersion is more pronounced, so shorter isn’t always better.