Laser pulse temporal, spectral and spatial shaping devices based on volume diffractive gratings with spatially variable parameters

A method for shaping laser pulses comprising the steps of:

• stretching a laser pulse by
• launching the laser pulse into a first side of a chirped Bragg grating at nonzero angle with respect to the grating vector;
• reflecting different spectral components of the laser pulse from different areas of a chirped Bragg grating to produce a temporal delay and a first lateral shift between the different spectral components;
• using a first mirror inclined in respect to a direction of diffraction beam propagation to provide a first multipass diffraction of the spectral component of the laser pulse from different areas of the chirped Bragg grating to increase the delay and the lateral shift between the different spectral components after each next reflection;
• using one of a phase and an amplitude mask placed between the chirped Bragg grating and the inclined first mirror to provide independent shaping of the spectral components with different lateral shifts;
• using a second mirror normal in respect to direction of the diffracted beam propogation to provide retroreflection of the delayed and laterally shifted spectral components;
• and
• using the inclined first mirror to provide second multipass diffraction of the spectral components that increase the delay and decrease the lateral shift between the spectral components after each next reflection to produce a final laser pulse after the last pass having a final delay with no lateral shift between the spectral components.