English

Ultra-Short flying-focus

Optics 2026-03-27 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

Achromatic flying-focus enables programmable control of intensity peak velocity, with applications in ultrafast optics. However, spatiotemporal coupling inherently elongates ultrashort pulses by introducing frequency-dependent focusing and arrival-time dispersion. We present a theoretical model identifying this pulse-lengthening effect and propose a radially-dependent spectral chirp to compensate for chromatic timing mismatches. Numerical simulations confirm that this approach preserves both pulse duration and programmed flying-focus velocity over extended focal regions. Additionally, dispersive media such as plasmas can naturally mitigate elongation. These results extend achromatic flying-focus techniques to ultrashort pulses, enabling new opportunities in laser--plasma interactions and high-field nonlinear optics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.24734,
  title  = {Ultra-Short flying-focus},
  author = {Jérôme Touguet and Igor A. Andriyash and Lucas Rovige and Cédric Thaury},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.24734},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:37:59.007Z