Abstract This study presents the investigation of the previously scarcely explored high energy few-cycle post-compression regime. Experimental shortening of the 5 mJ, 830 nm and 7. 7 fs pulse with a flat-top spatial profile was achieved by nonlinear spectral broadening in a single 1 mm thick fused silica plate. The results show 3. 8^{+0. 20-₀. ₁₁\, fs} pulse duration with a 64^{+2-₅}\, \% relative peak power. The achieved spatial-spectral homogeneity was 97. 1\, \%. By employing the deformable mirror wavefront correction the Strehl ratio of 0. 88 was shown even in the presence of a strong nonlinear interaction. It was demonstrated that a simple numerical model can predict output spectral properties well. The presented research might enable the future generation of high energy and quality single-cycle super-octave pulses.
Jansonas et al. (Wed,) studied this question.