Randomly spaced phase-only transmission combs for femtosecond pulse shaping

We present a new Randomized Multiple Independent Comb Shaping (RandoMICS) algorithm based on phase-only tailored transmission for ultrashort laser pulse replication. The benefit of this method is satellite-free generation of programmable laser pulse sequences. The result is achieved by creating a transmission function as a stochastic comb of disjoint segments of optical frequency continuum with numerically optimized segment width distribution. The algorithm is realized by generating a regular aperiodic comb and random permutations of its elements. Experimental demonstration is performed with an acousto-optic pulse shaper providing broadband multi-window transmission function with arbitrarily variable widths of the segments. Suppression of undesired satellite pulses by the factor of 8 is demonstrated as well as generating pulse replicas with extended usable delay range compared to phase-only pulse shaping with periodic transmission combs.