Self compression of Yb-doped solid-state lasers by combination of self-phase modulation and group-velocity dispersion in KDP crystal

We propose and evaluate numerically the self compression for Yb-doped solid-state laser pulses in a KDP crystal by the combination of the group-velocity dispersion and the self-phase modulation. The self compression is achievable as the group-velocity-dispersion coefficient of KDP crystals is negative around a 1-mum wavelength. Numerical results showed that the laser pulse in the range 50-200 fs can be compressed as short as 12.8 fs. This self-compression method is simple and low cost, which is possible to be applied to an Yb-doped solid-state laser system with a large-scale beam and an ultrahigh intensity in the regime of tens of femotoseconds.