17-fs pulses from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser.

We have generated sub-17-fs-duration pulses directly from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. These pulses are near transform limited, with a wavelength centered at 817 nm, a pulse repetition rate of 80 MHz, and an average power of 500 mW. By minimizing the amount of material inside the laser cavity and choosing the correct glass for the intracavity prism pair, third-order dispersion in the laser can be significantly reduced compared with that in previous designs. Extracavity compensation for group-velocity dispersion in the output coupler and autocorrelator optics is necessary to measure this pulse width. To our knowledge this laser generates pulses substantially shorter than any other laser to date.