ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on flexible, spatially dispersive laser systems providing ultrabroadband, or multiline spectral output. It reviews major developments of spatially dispersive cavities, and analyzes operation of the systems in terms of the transformation of the spatial distribution of the pump radiation into the spectral domain of the output laser radiation. The ultrafast, mode-locked lasers provide broadband output radiation, a large number of output spectral channels, high average power, and a spatially coherent output beam. Laser cavities where mode separation was realized in temporal and spatial domains are denoted as temporally dispersive and spatially dispersive cavities, respectively. In the framework of the matrix method, the cavity of each channel is approximated by a cavity consisting of two plane mirrors, an intracavity lens, and a dielectric medium. The spatial-to-spectral transformation method is based on a simultaneous realization of phase-matching conditions for all oscillating wavelengths of the ultrabroadband spatially dispersive laser.
