Quartic-phase-limited grism-based ultrashort pulse shaper.

By replacing the dispersive element in a zero-dispersion pulse shaper with a grism, we have constructed a quartic-phase-limited pulse shaper. We demonstrate compensation of 4500 fs2 without the use of a dynamic element in the pulse shaping line, which is approximately the amount of dispersion induced by a typical multiphoton microscope. We also demonstrate that detuning the pulse shaper to compensate for quadratic phase induces negligible spatial chirp, thereby maintaining a high-quality focal spot for a microscopy setup.