Credit: Dustin H. Froula, University of Rochester
The chromatic focusing system is coupled to a spectrally chirped laser pulse to generate the “flying focus.” The measured time resolved intensity at 10 locations along the longitudinal focal region was used to create movies with a trillionth of a second per frame. The three images (bottom right) show calculations of the intensity isocontours where the focal spot counter propagates with respect to the light—the light is moving from left to right. The movie compares the calculated focal intensity for a standard and flying focus system.